The wolf shifted, the hair along its spine tingling, ready to stiffen with aggression at the first sign of a threat. Syndelle tensed and turned, searching for the source of the wolf's uneasiness and latching onto it immediately.
Ishana, the vampire companion from Rafael's memories, stood near the blackjack tables, her attention fixed on Syndelle. For a brief instant their eyes met, but the distance was too great, and Ishana's mind too well-guarded by her bond with Lilith for Syndelle to get even a glimmer of what the other woman was thinking.
Syndelle broke the contact and moved away, choosing caution over foolish confrontation. For a moment she was tempted to open the link with Brann.
The sun would rise soon. She could feel its power building even though the casino insulated its guests from the reality of the outside world. Despite the shields separating her mind from those of her mates, she could sense Brann's rage and frustration as he was forced to retreat. She could feel Rafe's worry as he left the club where he'd been hunting for his friend's killer. And for a moment the longing to be with her mates almost overwhelmed her desire for freedom.
As if sensing her weakness, Brann's voice rushed in, full of heavy compulsion and dark intent. Return to the compound!
She blocked him, but it was getting more difficult. Perhaps he had already gained from her blood-or perhaps it was the magic, weakening her so that her shields could be breached. So that Brann could take full possession.
Syndelle shivered, her thoughts turning to her own need for sanctuary. She was tired. Overstuffed with the thoughts and emotions of the humans she'd encountered.
Skye would welcome her, but she feared she'd already caused her newfound sister enough trouble. Guilt flowed in where earlier there had been a heady sense of excitement and adventure.
She'd acted selfishly when she'd asked Skye to help her escape the confines of her own destiny. Not only had she exposed Skye to Brann's wrath, but should their parents find one daughter only to lose another... Syndelle's heart lurched at what her flight might cost them all.
A prostitute sashayed past her as she left the casino, causing her thoughts to veer off to the girl she'd found in the alley. And in an instant, Syndelle knew that's where she would go.
Big Daddy had said he owed her a favor, and this was the favor she'd ask. Sanctuary for the day. And then she would return to her mates.
The wolf settled again, curling its body though it remained alert. The ancient magic inside Syndelle whispered like a breeze over a sunlit plain, though she knew in the space of a heartbeat it could howl like wind through a sacred canyon. It was calm now, as if finally her own course flowed with the course it had plotted.
She slipped into a taxi, catching the driver's eyes with hers when he looked into the rearview mirror. With her mind she showed him where she wanted to go, soothing away his instant fear with the promise that he would be safe. Reassuring him that he would be paid well for making the trip, even though he was to forget he'd ever taken her there as soon as she left the cab. He nodded, accepting the commands, then looking away, already only partially aware of the passenger in his cab.
Syndelle drew a ward on the back of the driver's seat when he pulled to a stop in front of Big Daddy's house. It flared to life, a protection that would last until he was finished working.
He didn't look toward the backseat, didn't say anything about what was due. Syndelle read the fare meter and counted out the money, placing it on the seat next to him and murmuring a soft command for him to keep the change before leaving the cab and watching him drive away.
Two men and several girls lounged on the front porch of Big Daddy's house. Syndelle recognized the men, but not the girls.
"I need a place to stay for the day," she told the man closest to her.
He nodded. "Go on in. Mama Jo already knows Big Daddy's granted you his protection."
Syndelle moved inside and was met almost instantly by a heavyset woman. "You here to see the new girl again?"
"Is she awake?"
The woman waved her arm. "Don't know. Go on back if you want to."
An image fluttered through Syndelle's mind. A picture of this woman standing in the doorway with Itai in the hallway behind her, of her blocking the way and saying that the girls weren't here. Skye's memory. It piqued Syndelle's curiosity. Her eyes met the woman's but the woman only snorted as a protection spell flared to life between them. "Don't try none of that shit on me. You want to find out something, you ask like anyone else and take whatever answer I give you."
Surprise ripped though Syndelle, followed by amusement and respect. "My brother was here."
The woman snorted again. "And I told him the same thing. Would have told the other one, too, Skye, but she had more sense than to try and mess with me."
Syndelle had seen Skye's earlier hunt for some missing girls when she'd meshed their palms together and mingled their blood. In truth, all of Skye's life had become part of Syndelle's blood-memory, though she would not violate her sister's privacy by examining the stored images. "I know what Skye wanted. What about Itai?" She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or worried that Itai's hunt might overlap the one she, and Skye, and Rafael were on.
Mama Jo shook her head. "Don't know what he was looking for. Sniffed around the house for a few minutes before Skye showed up, then for a few minutes after. Far as I could tell, he didn't find what he was looking for."
Syndelle cocked her head, letting her senses flair out in a gentle probe that didn't raise the protection spell, as she silently asked, What are you?
But there was no answer and Syndelle couldn't tell whether it was because the question wasn't heard or the woman in front of her refused to answer.
"Go on back now," Mama Jo said. "There's a cot set up in the room Wren's in. Nobody'll bother you if you need to sleep for a while, and there are some spare clothes in the closet. If you're hungry, come around to the kitchen and I'll fix you something to eat."
"Thank you," Syndelle said before moving to the back room and feeling strangely disappointed when she found Wren asleep. She stopped next to the bed, seeing again the girl's ruined face and painful injuries.
The magic inside Syndelle gathered and she knew it was the reason she'd heard Wren's call for help. The reason why she'd been drawn here when she could easily have found shelter in a hotel room. The magic wanted something from this beaten and scarred girl.
Even though Wren was covered with a sheet, in her mind's eye, Syndelle could see the coven mark branded above the girl's hip. What was Wren doing here? What was she running from? And where was her coven? The witches and warlocks who were bound to her by the pledges they'd made to one another. Why had they allowed this to happen to a young member of their circle?
No one chose this life. True, Big Daddy appeared to treat his girls well, but that didn't change the fact that they were prostitutes, hookers who trolled the streets and bars, accepting the attention of anyone with the money to pay for their services.
These weren't high-class call girls, the nature of their trade masked in glamour and money. These were runaways and junkies, the desperate who sold their bodies for shelter and food and the illusion of being part of a family-for protection or at least the knowledge that their deaths would be avenged.
Syndelle frowned. Was that why Wren was here? Had she sensed the graveyard magic surrounding Big Daddy and thought he might be her only hope of surviving?
She eased the sheet down, horrified once again by the brutality the girl had suffered, by the sight of the word whore carved into her stomach. Syndelle stopped when the brand and the pentacles were exposed.
The ancient magic swirled to life. This young witch was important to it. It had a purpose for her-separate from Syndelle-and yet it could touch the girl only through Syndelle.
Syndelle closed her eyes so that she could concentrate on what was wanted of her. So that she could fight against it if she thought it necessary.
From the moment her parents had discovered how different she was from their other children, they'd done their best to train her, to help her cope with the old power that flowed through her body, the ancient blood memories that remembered a time when vampires walked in daylight and magic ruled the land. It was a primordial force that saw the world in terms of millenniums, accepting that chaos and devastation in one century would ultimately lead to rebirth and growth in another century.
From death came new life. From the destruction of one people came new civilizations. It was an endless circle in which the individual meant nothing.
Syndelle shivered. Feeling the weight of responsibility. Knowing that to unleash any of the magic was like throwing a stone in a pond and watching it ripple outward without being able to guess all the places it would ultimately touch.
But the promise to heal this girl whispered through Syndelle's mind. The magic would take away her pain and restore her-if Syndelle allowed some of it to escape her body. It was her choice. Her gift. Her destiny.
Syndelle touched a fingertip to the brand mark, drawing blood as she bit her lip in order to keep from crying out as she experienced the searing heat of iron against flesh-as she was absorbed in the darkness of the girl's memories and felt the girl's panicked need to escape something so evil that it had terrified her, first sending her to drugs and then to the streets in a effort to hide from it.
Syndelle tried to push deeper, to see what had scared Wren, but the way was blocked, the spells keeping the secret locked away, tainted and vile.
The wolf stood, its hackles raised, though rather than attack, it cautiously took a step back, pulling Syndelle's mind from the girl's as it did so.
Shaken, Syndelle wanted to bury her face in the wolf's ruff and seek protection from the evil she'd brushed against. It was an evil similar to the one she'd felt once before, when she and Niall had been attacked by the rogue werewolves outside their family's compound.
Her heart pounded in her chest as the memories of that day flew through her mind, immersing her in terror and horror, and for a second she stared at her hands, remembering the moment when she'd clawed herself out of the all-consuming darkness and endless silence, when she'd looked down and seen the blood on her hands and the dead bodies of the Weres at her feet. Slashed by talons that had erupted from the tips of her fingers, torn to shreds when the blood connection with Sabin had allowed him to take her place in the sun and use her body to kill.
She shuddered, remembering that first experience in the abyss, how she'd known instinctively that if she couldn't escape that ancient place, then she would become a part of it, absorbed as others had been in the past, while it waited for another to be born, one who was strong enough to both contain it and wield it.
Syndelle forced the old memories aside. Forced back the need to seek comfort and protection. If she was to take her place, then she couldn't remain forever sheltered and guarded from the things that would test and possibly harm her. She couldn't avoid the decisions and choices that were hers to make.
She took her finger off the brand and gathered the blood that had escaped when she bit her lip, signing in the air the ancient symbols necessary to protect herself before touching her fingers to Wren and tracing the coven mark, letting the magic flow into the sleeping girl, watching as the brand darkened to the color of old blood.
When it was done, Syndelle pulled the sheet back over the girl and moved to the cot, curling up in its center, allowing herself to be warmed and guarded by the wolf as she sought the comfort of sleep.
Almost immediately Brann appeared, a strong presence moving along the boundaries of her shield like a tiger pacing the perimeter of another's territory and looking for a place to enter. Syndelle smiled in her sleep and dropped enough of her guard so that they could be together, but not so much that he could find her.
He didn't come bounding right in, but instead studied the situation cautiously, and in the process, unknowingly gave her confidence a boost. She would be able to handle this mate!
Rafael's presence joined Brann's in a smooth blending that had Syndelle's heart filling with warmth and anticipation. Something had happened between the two men, something had shifted and changed between them and the feel of their harmony made her womb flutter and her body swell with the desire to go to them, to be with both of them.
Tell us where you are and Rafael will come and get you, Brann whispered, his voice soft and compelling. An ancient vampire's voice meant to be obeyed.
She laughed, glad that he was testing her, that he wasn't so sure of her weakness that he didn't bother to try and use the force of his will on her. I'll come to you at the end of the day. I'm safe where I am.
The compulsion intensified, strengthened by the Angelini bond and the blood she'd shared with him. But still she was able to resist his command.
Let me come and get you, Rafael pleaded, letting her feel the tension in his body. I've been up all night trying to find the killer. Don't make me sleep alone.
For a moment she weakened, wanting to feel his body against hers, wanting to feel his cock plunging in and out of her as his teeth locked onto her shoulder. The wolf stirred, its body also heavy with desire. It was willing to return to Brann's home. It was willing to give up the last hours of freedom in order to mate.
Syndelle wavered, torn between the current demands of her heart and body and her earlier resolve. But Brann tipped the scale by choosing that moment to strengthen his command that she reveal where she was.
No. I will see you this evening. That will be soon enough, she said, immediately blocking out the sounds of their protest, though she stayed connected to them so that they would know she was safe, and she would know the same about them.