Chapter Seven
Max awoke abruptly and sensed she was alone. She spotted a piece of paper tacked to the cabin door, and a sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as she hurried over to read it. The jerk! He’d left her again, and he was ordering her to stay put until his return. Not the best tactic to take with a lover on the morning after, but she’d give the big guy a pass this time.
He had a thing about keeping her safe, and after last night’s run-in with the dark mages, she was in no hurry for a repeat performance. Besides, if he needed her, she’d sense it as she had last night. Caleb was out doing his thing, but he wasn’t in danger. Good thing, too, because without her morning cup of coffee and food, she wasn’t much help to anyone.
Intent on putting some food in her grumbling stomach, Max pulled on one of Caleb’s shirts and headed toward the cabin’s tiny kitchen. When she heard a soft cry, as if someone was in pain, she walked over to the cabin’s only window and pulled the curtain back. What she saw caused her heart to leap painfully in her chest.
A tall man stood a few yards from the cabin door gripping Kayla so tightly by the forearm she hung like a lifeless rag doll at his side. She still wore the hooded jacket and pants from the night before. But her clothes were filthy, and her eyes were filled with pain and disbelief.
The man holding Kayla kept his head bent as he spoke to her, but Max didn’t need to hear what he was saying to know he taunted her. Auras were an intricate part of her gift, and Max read them the way other people read the newspaper. This man was a dark mage and ten times more powerful than Renault. There was no light in his aura, and it hung about him like a shroud, darkly malevolent, wholly evil. Yet, when he lifted his head to look at her, his face was so hauntingly beautiful Max could barely believe her eyes. It had to be an illusion, but knowing that didn’t lessen the impact.
“I know you see me, Caleb’s mate,” he called out softly, his dulcet voice a perfect match for his otherworldly beauty. “You fear for your friend, and rightly so. She has fought well for one so young, but her disobedience will only earn her more pain. Remove the protective wards surrounding the cabin, and I promise no further harm will come to her.”
Max slowly released the curtain and moved toward the door. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but doing nothing wasn’t an option. She opened the door and stood in the entryway, fully aware she held Kayla’s life in her hands.
“Caleb isn’t here,” she stated flatly. “And whatever you want, she has no part in it.”
“Ah, but there you are quite mistaken,” the man said softly. “Caleb destroyed what belonged to me. Now I destroy what belongs to him. A pity really. I do not enjoy destroying beautiful things.” He glanced at Kayla. “And she is quite beautiful.”
Max fought to keep her expression bland, knowing any show of fear would be seen as a weakness to be exploited. And the knowledge that Caleb wasn’t far away helped to steady her nerves. She could sense his presence, moving nearer at an incredible pace, while he used the mate bond between them to blanket her mind with a single command.
Stay in the cabin. I’m coming.
Max didn’t make an effort to respond. She did not intend to give the mage what he wanted by leaving the cabin. But she wasn’t going to let him hurt Kayla if she could help it, and that meant keeping his attention focused on her and off Kayla. Problem was, she had never been good at small talk, and dealing with a powerful, pissed off mage hadn’t been part of Life Skills 101.
“You seem to know who I am, but I don’t remember meeting you,” Max said. “That puts me at a distinct disadvantage.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “Come now, do not attempt to play games. You know I am Michael. Caleb would not leave his mate ignorant of his greatest enemy.”
Max shrugged. “He spoke of a Michael, but he didn’t say anything about your being his greatest enemy. I got the impression you worked for someone. Kind of like a personal assistant.” It was risky to insult the bastard, but she needed to keep his attention focused on her.
Michael arched a single dark eyebrow at Max, as if amused by the insult. He removed his hand from Kayla’s arm and turned her face toward him, manipulating her frozen body as if she were a mannequin. Then, when he had her face positioned such so, he backhanded her so forcefully across the face the ornate ring on his finger opened a gash on her cheek. Immobile as she was, unable to defend herself in any way, the blow was an act of unnecessary cruelty.
“You bastard,” Max hissed. “I hope Caleb kills you.”
“He has tried.”
“So I’ve heard. And he must be closing in for the kill, or I doubt you’d be here.”
“Your bravado is charming, little one, but I do not fear Caleb. I have the means to bring the wolf to heel.” He turned toward Kayla. “This one has great courage.” He stroked along the gash on Kayla’s bloody cheek. “But sometimes courage is not enough.” He took a handkerchief from his pocket and casually wiped the blood from his hand before looking back at Max. “You will remove the wards surrounding the cabin. Now. This instant. Or I will bring her such pain she will beg me to end her life.” He spoke softly, his words devoid of all human emotion, yet he managed to convey so much menace Max actually flinched.
“Don’t,” Max pleaded when he turned back to Kayla. “The wards were placed by Caleb’s people. I don’t know how to remove them.”
He stared at Max, his black eyes narrowed. Then he smiled. “Come to me then.” The words formed in Max’s mind, pushing all other thoughts aside. “The wards will not harm you. Step over the threshold, and the girl will be spared. You know it is what you want to do. It is what you must do.”
Max leaned forward, drawn to the sound of his voice. It was so beautiful, so pure. So—Compulsion.
Mama Willie had warned her there were beings able to control others with their voice, but until now, she’d never encountered one. In truth, she’d doubted their existence, but her grandmother had insisted she learn to mind shield. And despite her thoughts on the matter, she’d been a good student.
“Good try, Michael, but not good enough.” Max smirked, shaking off his control. “And since Caleb will be here any minute, maybe you should call it a day.”
“I will call it a day, as you say, because you have revealed to me what I came to learn.” His gaze slid to Kayla. “But before I leave, this one will pay for your insolence. You do not have the power to stop me, and Caleb will not arrive in time to prevent my stripping the magic from her soul. I will leave her as barren as a field in winter. Little more than a husk of her former self. For a child of the fey such as she, there is no worse fate.”
Max saw the horror of his words reflected in Kayla’s eyes. He spoke the truth, and she had to find some way of stopping him, even if it meant opening a doorway she had sworn to keep forever locked.
With no other options open, Max reached for the thing buried deep inside her. It unfurled swiftly, eager to escape the bonds of a lifetime, and Max did nothing to hold it back. She simply locked her gaze on the mage, making sure there was little doubt as to where it should direct its ire.
Michael flexed his fingers, the movement almost imperceptible. But Max felt a rush of power as a silver web, pulsing with enough energy to withstand a nuclear blast, formed around him. It was an impressive show of power, and the smile on Michael’s face said he knew it.
“I see you have found the courage to unleash the hellhound buried inside you, daughter of Morrigan, but it will do you little good. You are a fledgling, and I am at the height of my power. There can be only one outcome.”
Max didn’t bother with a comeback. Whatever she had unleashed had full control of her body, and speech was no longer an option.
From behind her eyes, it watched Michael with the predatory patience of a born killer, and only Caleb’s fierce growls pouring into her mind, demanding she wait for his arrival, seemed to have an effect on it. It listened to Caleb, seeming to defer to him. But when Michael lifted a hand toward Kayla, it severed the link with Caleb.
Max’s arms snapped outward, and a stream of white light shot from her fingertips. It surged toward Michael, coalescing around his feet into a mass of writhing white flames that slowly crept up his legs.
Michael waved his hands, calling on his magic to disperse the flames, but his actions seemed to have the reverse effect. The flames flared wildly, increasing in intensity. Michael moved his hands faster, franticly weaving one spell after another, but to no avail. He was burning alive, and the considerable magic at his disposal seemed to have no effect. In less than a minute, a living cocoon of white encased him.
“Mage Slayer!” Michael called out from within the flames. “You have won this day, but this war is far from over. Before it is done, I will see you and your mate well rewarded for what you have done here today. Savor your victory here today. It will be your last.”
A second later, he disappeared as if plucked from the flames by an invisible hand. And just as quickly, the white flames became wisps of smoke and drifted away as if they had never been.
The power receded within Max, leaving her once again in control of her body and the recipient of Caleb’s fury. Her wolf man would be putting in an appearance any second, and he was beyond furious that she had put herself at risk. Max threw up a flimsy mind block, tuning his tirade down several notches. The big guy had it bad for her. He was almost drooling with rage, but he was also half out of his mind with worry. Max smiled. The make-up sex was going to be great.
Kayla called out to her, pulling her thoughts back to the present, and Max turned to find her struggling to come to a sitting position on the ground. Max rushed to her and, wrapping an arm around her waist, helped her to stand.
“He’s gone, Kayla,” Max whispered, needing to hear the words of assurance as much as Kayla.” You’re going to be all right.”
Kayla nodded, and both women clung to each other as they made their way into the cabin. Once inside, Max helped Kayla into a chair at the kitchen table before heading to the tiny bathroom in search of a first aid kit.
“The cut on your cheek isn’t bad,” Max called out, while inspecting the items in the medicine cabinet. “But we need to get it cleaned up.” She poked her head out of the bathroom. “No first aid kit in here. Do you know where Caleb keeps it?”
“No,” Kayla said, using a paper napkin to wipe the blood from her cheek. “But it isn’t needed. Like the weres, my kind heals quickly.”
Max opened her mouth to ask her exactly what my kind meant, when a man materialized out of thin air less than six feet away, and directly in front of her.
Max screamed and stumbled backwards, but Kayla came to her feet bristling with anger.
“Stefan! You nearly scared Max to death. And what are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe.”
“No doubt,” the vampire snapped, his black eyes flashing. “Or you would not have risked my wrath by acting in such a foolish manner.”
Max released the breath she had been holding and forced herself to relax. Stefan wasn’t a threat. Although, it was obvious he and Kayla had issues of the man/woman type.
Suddenly exhausted, Max took a seat on the edge of the bed, quite happy to be a spectator in the battle of wills between the couple. Both of them looked mad enough to burst into flames, but Max put her money on Kayla. She was fighting mad, but he was out of his mind with worry, and Max didn’t need to read his aura to know it.
“I was a fool to listen to you,” Stefan snarled, taking hold of Kayla’s shoulders to give her a little shake. “I should never have allowed you such freedom.”
Kayla broke free of his hold, appearing not in the least intimidated by the tumultuous power emanating from the tall vampire. “I am my own person, Stefan. I can take care of myself.”
“As you did when Michael enthralled you?”
Kayla’s eyes widened in surprise, and Stefan’s lips turned up in a cruel facsimile of a smile. “Oh yes, I saw everything that happened. And because I was foolish enough to honor your request to delay our bonding, I could not prevent your capture. As it was, I was hard pressed to protect you from serious injury. But I will listen to no more of your prattle about the rights of women. I allowed you the freedom you sought, and you did not even have the good sense to keep your wards in place!”
“I did not drop my wards,” Kayla denied hotly. “Michael has found a way to circumvent the patterns that have protected our people for centuries. And what do you mean you allowed me the freedom I sought? You do not own me, Stefan. I am a free woman, no matter what you may think.”
“We will see about that.”
Stefan reached for her, but Kayla deftly avoided his hands and made a dash for the door. He caught her midstride, and they both vanished into thin air.
Max walked over and inspected the area where they’d stood, thinking she knew exactly how Alice felt when she fell down the rabbit hole. Maybe if she pinched herself hard enough she’d awaken to find she’d dreamed the whole thing as well.
With a shake of her head, she turned and nearly jumped out of her skin when she found Caleb standing in the open door of the cabin. He was in human form, but his eyes were wild, and his claw-tipped hands bore traces of blood.
“Caleb! Don’t sneak up on me like that,” Max cried. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Caleb closed the distance between them and hoisted her up by the armpits to glare directly into her face. “I should put you over my knee and spank that little butt of yours so hard you can’t sit for a week,” he snarled, between clenched teeth. “What were you thinking?”
Max glared back at him. “What are you so mad about? I’m the one who was abandoned. And put me down. You’re treating me like a doggie toy.”
Caleb snarled at her again, this time flashing an impressive set of canines, and Max decided a tactical retreat was in order. She knew his anger was fueled by the fear that she might have been hurt—or worse. But he was mad enough to give her a serious spanking. And since his hands were as big and well developed as the rest of him, that was something she wanted to avoid.
“Okay, my bad. I apologize for breaking my promise to stay in the cabin. But you did abandon me.” Max added the last bit, hoping to deflect some of his anger. She had to bite her bottom lip to keep from grinning when Caleb’s angry expression gave way to a frown of uncertainty.
He allowed her feet to touch the floor, but when she tried to move away from him, he gripped her waist, anchoring her in place.
“You were not abandoned, woman. I left you a note.”
“Leaving a woman the morning after with a, Stay in the cabin or else, Post-it note on the door is abandonment.” Max pushed against his chest. “Let me go. I’ve decided I don’t like you anymore.”
“Too bad, you’re stuck with me.” He jerked her into his arms for a jarring hug. “I could have lost you.”
“Now I’m beginning to feel like a yo-yo,” Max gasped with her face smashed against his chest. “And lighten up a bit on the rib-cracking hug, wolf man. I’m breakable.”
Caleb loosened his hold, but he rested his cheek against the top of her head in a gesture Max secretly craved. Whenever he did it, she felt cherished right down to the tips of her toes.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” Caleb said. “I need you, babe.”
Max sighed heavily and returned his embrace. She’d been ready to give him a piece of her mind about his leaving her, but how could she yell at him when he was holding her as if she was the most precious thing in the world to him?
“I had to help Kayla. Otherwise I never would have left the cabin to face a scary dude like Michael. But I heard you calling to me through our bond. I knew you were doing everything you could to get to me.”
“Moving at preternatural speed, I would have reached you in seconds, but Michael sacrificed several of his followers to slow me down. Each time I dispatched one, another took his place. His goal was to delay me long enough to capture you and Kayla. With the two most important women in my life held hostage, he could keep me at bay.” Caleb rubbed his cheek against the top of her head. “His plan might have succeeded, if he hadn’t underestimated you.
Max snuggled against his broad chest, enjoying the feel of his strong arms around her. “I don’t want to talk about what happened. I think I’ll just stay here for a while and enjoy the moment. Unless…” She titled her head back to smile suggestively up at him. “…you have something better in mind?”
He kissed the tip of her nose and gently eased her away from him. “We need to talk. But first I want to thank you for saving Kayla.”
Max sighed, accepting the inevitable. She knew what that meant. He wanted to discuss exactly how she’d saved Kayla. And the expression on his face said later wasn’t an option.
“You don’t have to thank me. I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.”
“Others might have, but you are a true daughter of Morrigan.”
“Michael called me that. He also called me a mage slayer, but I don’t understand what either term means.”
“Morrigan was one of my people. A woman born with the heart of a lion and the soul of a saint. She protected the innocent against insurmountable odds. But it was her ability to turn a dark mage’s powers against him that earned her the title of Mage Slayer. I believe you have untapped powers similar to hers, and more than likely she was one of your ancestors.”
“So that’s what I did,” she murmured thoughtfully. “I turned Michael’s own powers against him.” Max looked up at Caleb, her eyes filled with unease. “But to defeat him, I had to do something I’d vowed never to do. And I can see by your guarded expression you know exactly what I’m talking about. My guess is you’ve known all along there was something powerful buried inside me.”
When he remained silent, his face expressionless, Max shook her head in resignation. “Well, it’s out now. The question is, can I put it back?”
Caleb closed the distance between them. “Do you really want to put it back?”
She opened her mouth to answer him, but he placed a finger against her lips.
“On second thought, don’t answer that. You’re a daughter of Morrigan. Of that, I have no doubt. But I also believe you’re the human mage slayer prophesized to mate a Lycan and fight at his side in the coming Great War.” He pulled Max into his arms, his hands molding her against the hard contours of his body and the blatant evidence of his need. “But none of that matters now. All that matters is that you’re safe and,” he whispered softly against her neck, “the smell of your arousal tells me you are very much in need of the comfort only your mate can give you.”
“God, could you please stop smelling me.” Max moaned, burying her face in his chest. “And anyway, we can’t do that now.”
“Why not, babe? It’s what we both need.”
Max tilted her head back to look at him in dismay. “Have you forgotten Kayla? We need to check on her. Stefan was very angry when he flashed her out of here. She might need rescuing.”
“We’ll be seeing them both in a few hours. Stefan and Kayla are both part of the Alliance, and the team is meeting here at the cabin to discuss the best way to handle Michael. But in any case, you needn’t worry about Kayla. Stefan would sooner cut off his arm than hurt her. He’s just upset that she won’t sit by the fire while he goes out and slays the dragons of the world.”
“Kinda like somebody we know,” Max said, arching an eyebrow.
“Exactly like someone we know,” Caleb said, sliding his hands over her bottom. “But in my case, I know I’m mated to a little spitfire who’s going to need her tight little ass spanked on a regular basis. Stefan, on the other hand, is still trying to figure out what the hell happened to turn his sweet little bride into a ball buster.”
“So they’re already married?” Max asked, doing her best to ignore her body’s heated response to his marauding hands. It was a losing battle, but she couldn’t just bend over and drop her drawers every time the man curled his finger at her. Even though, God help me, that’s exactly what I want to do.
“They’re better than married,” Caleb informed her with a knowing little smile that said he wasn’t in the least fooled by her resistance. “A vampire’s bride is literally the other half of his soul. They will mate, but at the moment they’re having a bit of a problem merging their worlds. Stefan has rigid ideas about a woman’s place in the world, and delicate little Kayla has blossomed into a steel magnolia. But I have no doubt they’ll mate. There’s just going to be plenty of fireworks while they work out their differences.”
He leaned in, inhaling deeply as he nuzzled her neck. “But that’s enough talk about Stefan and Kayla for now. I smell something delicious. Could it be my baby has the same problem I do?”
“You always have a problem,” Max quipped, tilting her head to the side to give him better access to her neck. “But me first. I’m the injured party here.”
Caleb smiled down at her and slid a hand beneath the shirt she was wearing, his hand stroking the curls at the junction of her thighs. “I don’t think so. You’ve been a very bad girl. And bad girls don’t get to call the shots.”
“Okay-y,” she moaned, savoring the feel of his thumb stroking over her folds. “I have been pretty bad, but I’m ready to accept my punishment.”
“That’s good, baby, because your punishment is going to be long and hard.” He took her hand and led her over to the bed. “And if you really do a good job of showing me how sorry you are, I won’t use the handcuffs…until later.”