Mystic eased out of the hotel room close to sunset. The wallet from the dead vampire was a grim reminder that tattooed or not, she was still an Angelini with duties and responsibilities.
She cast a quick look at her sleeping friends before quietly closing the door and padding down the hallway. Between the run and changing form so many times, Gabe and Gabby were almost comatose by the time they arrived in Vegas.
The same could be said about her. She'd been exhausted by the escape from the Zevanti compound as well as the long run in the woods and the car trip to Las Vegas. She'd fallen asleep almost as soon as she crawled onto the hotel bed.
But now her body hummed with both excitement and something else, something that sent a wave of fear through her. She felt hunted, as if her days of freedom were nearing an end.
Mystic shivered as the image of Hawk rose in her mind. She hoped Gabby and Gabe had covered their tracks. She didn't think Jagger would try to follow them. His interest had been just as intense as Hawk's but it hadn't felt as focused and dangerous.
Hawk would follow them if he could. He'd drag them back to the Howl whether they were willing or not.
Mystic rebelled at the idea of it. She rebelled at the idea that she would somehow end up tied to a pack, restrained by pack hierarchy and politics. She was too much like her mother to be able to tolerate it. Estelle loved the city life. She loved to mingle with humans and vampires and shapeshifters alike.
In the very beginning, Angelini mates were always powerful humans. Witches, warlocks, sorcerers, shamans, but then humans had believed in magic and the existence of supernatural beings in those days. Now very few Angelini took human mates. Most were mated to vampires and shifters.
She could guess why that was so. What better way to protect the humans than to live among the predators who might threaten them?
Mystic worried her bottom lip as she climbed into a cab and gave the driver directions to Fangs. She prayed it wasn't a mistake to try to find Falcone's sire but she wanted to rid herself of the wallet and she couldn't think of anyone else to go to.
The Angelini and their mates were gathered elsewhere, in a meeting she was not allowed to attend since she didn't yet have the mark of a hunter. Or at least that's what her grandmother had told her as justification for sending her to the Howl.
If her parents hadn't been abroad then she would have gone with them to the Angelini gathering. They would have insisted. But she hadn't bothered to argue with her grandmother.
The cab pulled to a stop in front of Fangs. Mystic laughed out loud when she saw the humans dressed in black and pierced with silver. They were lined up, anxiously awaiting the chance to become a vampire's dinner.
Amazing. And yet not so. The pleasure of a vampire's bite was beyond compare-or so Estelle had said and Mystic believed her. The sounds of ecstasy that often filled their house during the night were impossible to ignore.
Mystic got out of the cab and went directly to the front of the line, secure in the knowledge that no one would challenge her. She'd been created to hunt among the humans, to attract and bespell them, to use them even as it was her birth duty to guard the border between their world and hers.
Flesh of her mother.
Blood of her vampire fathers.
Bound together by Angelini magic to create a child who would continue the Renaldi legacy.
Mystic grimaced. Continue the legacy-with a twist. As far as she could tell she was very different from the rest of the Renaldi Angelini. Even Estelle could shift to a wolf.
Three humans, two girls and a boy, joined Mystic at the door. They were younger than she was, barely legal. She wondered why they were granted preferential treatment. There was no hint of a vampire's claim on them.
The boy flashed his fangs then fell almost immediately into Mystic's gaze when she smiled at him. She looked away quickly in order to release him.
One of the girls slipped her arm possessively through the boy's. She glared at Mystic. "I haven't seen you here before."
"I only just got to Vegas." Then because she was curious, Mystic added, "I'm here to find Giovanni Banderali. Do you know him?"
The second girl's eyes widened then narrowed. Her shoulders stiffened. "He's married to a friend of ours. What do you want with him?"
Surprise hit Mystic. Apparently she had learned something her mother and fathers didn't yet know. She doubted a human wedding ceremony had been performed, but if Gian was introducing a woman as his wife then she was no doubt his companion. Both Falcone and Yorick claimed Estelle as their companion and she wore an elaborately crafted companion necklace signifying who she belonged to.
"What's his wife's name?" Mystic asked.
"Skye Delano," the girl answered. "No. It's Coronado now."
This time it was shock that rippled through Mystic. "Coronado?"
Like the Renaldis, the Coronado line of Angelini traced all the way to the very beginning. They were the first to take vampire mates. And like every Angelini child, Mystic had memorized the heritage and bloodline of each family line with the same thoroughness as she'd learned numbers and the alphabet.
"Skye told us she was found in a ghetto of LA when she was a kid," the boy said. "She didn't know what her real name was until her sister, Syndelle, showed up." He flashed his fangs again. "I'm Mike. This is my girlfriend Dawn. That's my sister Candy."
"So what do you want with Gian?" Candy asked.
"I'm a relative of his."
A cheer went up as the door opened. A human bound to a vampire stepped outside. He glanced at Mystic with curiosity but didn't question her as she slipped into the club.
* * * * *
The eagle screamed before it dropped to the ground next to a silver sports car. For a moment the bird stood, stretching its wings full length before shimmering and changing into a lion and then a man as the last of the sun's rays faded away.
Joy raced through Roman. Exaltation. Though the forms were both alike and different than his original one, he rejoiced in once again walking the earth as other than a man. He savored the feeling of sunlight and the rush that came from filling his stomach with the flesh of his prey as well as their blood.
It had been centuries since he'd greeted the dawn and lingered to meet the sunset. He hadn't been able to resist the temptation to leave the city and find a deserted area so he could hunt as he had once hunted. But now he needed to return to Las Vegas.
He might be both vampire and shapeshifter, but his need for a mate had not lessened. In this, the beast he once was still ruled.
Roman removed the car key from its hiding place and retrieved his clothes. As he dressed his thoughts traveled to Fangs. Tonight he would locate Gian and learn more about Mystic Renaldi.
Mystic. The name moved through Roman like a powerful chant as the beast that now had two forms allied itself with ancient vampire magic, and all were in agreement. He needed to find Mystic and claim her, even if he also had to share her.
* * * * *
Gian was more serious, more intense than Mystic anticipated. Her father's sire wasn't a man she could imagine lounging around a Victorian parlor all day, enjoying frivolous pursuits and reading poetry to the ladies he intended to seduce-not that Falcone had dared contemplate seducing anyone other than Estelle since being bound by Angelini magic.
Skye Coronado's other mate was a surprise as well. He was human, and a policeman.
Mystic placed the dead vampire's wallet on the table then described what she and Gabe and Gabby had heard and discovered on their way to Vegas. When she was finished, Rico turned to Gian and said, "My vote is we call Augustino. Let him investigate this until the rest of Skye's family gets here. He's Were and he's a cop. That makes him equipped to deal with this until Skye's family shows up."
"In this I agree with Rico," Gian said, brushing his lips against Skye's knuckles. "Let Augustino investigate. If the wolves can handle it among themselves, or if it can be brought before the Angelini, it would be better for all of us. There are plenty of vampires who have no liking for Weres, and vice versa. We don't know enough to act and we can't afford to let this become public knowledge. Were, human or vampire, there are too many who flock here looking for fun and are not adverse to trouble."
Gian glanced down at the driver's license, then back at Mystic. "You will guide Augustino to the spot where the body rests."
Mystic nodded. She was more than willing to take the unknown detective to where they'd buried the body if it would mean the matter was turned over to others and she could rejoin her friends.
Rico excused himself from the private table near the nightclub's bar in order to call the other policeman. Gian also left.
Mystic's gaze strayed to Skye's neck. It was free of the hunter's tattoo. "You're Jovina," she said. "You're the daughter of Richelle and her mates, Sabin and Riesen. Your name is among the ones I learned but no one knew what happened to you." Mystic cocked her head. "Just as few have ever seen your sister Syndelle."
Skye removed a cell phone from the pocket of her Harley jacket and opened it, using a built-in camera to take a picture of the driver's license before putting the phone away. "I was kidnapped when I was young though I can't remember the details of it." She looked around at the Goth crowd and the vampires drawn to Fangs. "I had no clue about any of this until recently."
"In these times it rarely happens that a child is separated from parents," Mystic said, wondering if the Angelini magic had chosen Rico for Skye because he belonged to the world of her childhood. "It would have been impossible to separate me from my parents. They give new meaning to the term overprotective. But it's an ancient custom of the Angelini to keep children safe by making them forget their origins so they blend in with the humans if they're lost for an extended period of time."
Mystic shook her head. "I'm not sure I'll embrace the custom if I have children. The old ways are not always the best ways." She grinned, thinking about how often she told her fathers that they needed to get with the times, and yet, among the Renaldis, Estelle and her two mates were hardly the norm.
It was Skye's turn to give Mystic a curious look. "Most of what I know about the Angelini comes from what Syndelle has shared with me. I can't believe your family is letting you roam around Vegas even if you're here with two Were friends."
"My parents are in Europe and the rest of my family is at the same gathering your parents and brothers are attending. My grandparents sent me to the Zevanti compound so I could attend a Howl with them. They're hoping I find Were mates."
"What's a Howl like?"
"I didn't officially make it to this one. The Howl itself takes place on sanctuary land owned by the Were council. Think rustic resort with hot tubs for those remaining human, kennels to house anyone who can't control themselves in wolf form, and game-filled woods to hunt in when wearing fur and you'll get the picture. The first several days are for negotiations and addressing grievances among the packs as well as for deciding larger issues. Gabe and Gabby and I stayed in the Zevanti compound while the others were dealing with pack business. This particular Howl is a large one, with lots of packs in attendance.
"The sanctuary is surrounded by several different pack territories. Weres come and go between the council lands and their own, or their hosts'. Most packs host Weres from outside of the area for various reasons, but usually it has something to do with alliances formed or alliances they want to form. The Zevantis had at least fifty Weres from outside packs in their compound and that doesn't include the ones they still consider "family". So lets just say the testosterone levels were high even before the actual entertainment started, and the lust permeating the air was almost suffocating."
Skye grinned. "So everyone was in an extreme state of horniness."
"Yes. That's why my grandparents were so sure I'd end up with mates there."
"I don't blame you for making a run for it. As much as I love my mates..." Skye laughed as Gian returned to the table, eyebrows lifted.
"As much as you love your mates...?" he questioned.
Skye rose partway out of her chair and brushed her lips against his before answering, "As much as I love my mates they do sometimes cramp my style."
Gian laughed. "I think you are speaking of your human mate who prefers that his wife follow the laws he's charged with enforcing."
"True."
Gian's attention shifted to a point behind Mystic. "Ah, good," he said, his voice silky. "We can turn this matter over to the wolves and then go play."
The scent of the werewolf reached Mystic first. Her body tightened as her breath grew suddenly short and her heart raced in her chest. She didn't want to stand. She didn't want to see the man whose heat rubbed against her like thick fur. She didn't want to acknowledge-either to him or to herself-that the trap of Angelini magic had sprung closed on her. But there was no denying the need to couple unfurling inside her, turning her body into her enemy and screaming she was in the presence of one of her mates.
Skye's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. Her head cocked as though she was in a silent conversation. Gian frowned in response. His gaze traveled from Mystic to the man who was behind her, the man whose gaze felt as though it was boring through her.
Mystic clenched her fists and rose from her seat. Reluctantly she turned so she could meet the detective. Her body pulsed with lust when she saw his strong masculine features and hard body. A shiver of erotic fear slid through her when she glimpsed the feral wolf that lived inside him, that shimmered beneath the surface and looked at her through deep brown eyes.
Outcast or outsider. She felt it more than anything else. He had no obvious tattoo or piece of jewelry identifying him as a member of a pack, though the lack of either didn't rule out that he belonged to one. It was a fad among younger werewolves to wear dog tags, and many of the female Weres liked to wear pierced earrings with their pack symbol appearing somewhere in the design.
Mystic's eyes drifted lower. Desire roared through her at the evidence of his desire, at the sight of the large bulge at the front of his jeans. She wouldn't find a pack brand above the line of his pubic hair or on his inner thigh-and it didn't matter to her. She didn't intend to let him claim her.
Gian placed his hands on Mystic's shoulders, startling her. His amusement raced through her, a reminder of their shared blood link. "This is Mystic Renaldi, a daughter of my line. Though she does not bear the mark of an Angelini hunter, she is one. I have commanded that she, and she alone, take you to the place where the murdered vampire was found. Christian Augustino, do you accept full responsibility for this member of my family?"
Augustino's eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. Mystic's heart jerked in her chest in protest. A small sound of denial escaped but it was too late to avoid Gian's formal, binding question-an amusement for her father's sire but a life-sentence for her.
She didn't want a mate! At least not right now.
But even as her mind screamed it, the Angelini magic was rising from her core and bringing wave after wave of heady, inescapable lust with it. The detective's jaw clenched and she prayed he'd refuse, or ask that Gabe and Gabby go with them to the burial site. He did neither. Instead, he nodded and said, "I accept responsibility for her."
Mystic's body shivered. It rejoiced even as her mind scrambled for some argument she could raise, some claim she could make that would put distance between her and the detective. Desperately she turned and looked to Skye. Hope flared inside her at the way Skye was frowning at Gian in displeasure. But before the hope could fully blossom it was pinched off, a bud not even given a chance to bloom.
Christian Augustino moved in before she could utter a word. His arm went around her, holding her in place as his free hand brushed her hair away from her neck. His lips touched her skin and his teeth clamped down in a stinging, claiming bite that whipped through her and made her whimper.
Mystic lowered her head. Her body overrode her mind. It melted and yielded in a show of submission.
Christian growled against her skin and the low sound stroked her pussy, flooding her panties with moisture and swelling her cunt lips further. She whimpered again. Resistance fled as her body went soft and pliant against his.
He released his grip on her neck. He bathed over the spot he'd marked with his tongue before dropping his arms and stepping away, his focus shifting to the driver's license of the dead vampire.
For a moment Mystic considered excusing herself. She imagined losing herself in the crowded club and then escaping back to the hotel room. But before she could take a step Christian's hand shackled her wrist and locked her to his side, telling her without words that she would not escape her destiny.
"Let's go," Christian said, his voice abrupt.
He pocketed the wallet and guided her out of the club, not releasing his grip on her arm until he had her buckled into his car.
Mystic shivered. Her skin was coated in a fine sheen of sweat. Every cell was on fire as wave after wave of Christian's potent pheromones washed over her, keeping her thoughts off balance and preventing her resolve to escape from firming.
"I need to leave a message for my friends," she finally managed.
She didn't want them to worry about her. More importantly, she didn't want Gabe to come looking for her. Mostly he was easygoing and fun-loving, but sometimes he could go all wolfie-in a dominating, overbearing, alpha kind of way.
The Zevanti pack had taken responsibility for her. Gabe might think he needed to take her back to the Howl-and force Christian to go along with him.
Anxiety for her friend coiled in Mystic's belly. She already sensed that the detective who would soon be her mate was not a man to be challenged lightly.
Christian couldn't stop himself from breathing in deeply and filling his lungs with Mystic's heady, lush scent. A mate! An exotically beautiful one made up of amber and earth tones, with skin as tanned as his and eyes showing a wolf's influence-light brown, the color echoed in the highlights of her thick mane of hair.
Every cell in his body quivered with anticipation. The urgency to mount and claim her was almost unbearable.
When Rico had called him he'd intended to swing by Fangs and get the license, then go to where the vampire was buried and work outward, trying to find the scent of the werewolves. That would have to wait. Nothing was as important as claiming his mate.
He reached for his cell phone. The wolf's primitive instinct to secure Mystic in its den and repeatedly mate with her warred with the man's intelligence. Reason prevailed. It would be better to avoid trouble and further complication by assuring her friends she was safe. "Use my phone," he said and a jolt went through his cock when her fingers brushed against his.
Gabby's voice was groggy when she answered the phone. "Where are you?"
Mystic bit her lip. "I went to Fangs."
Gabrielle instantly made the connection. "That's the club Falcone's sire co-owns?" There were sounds of movement. "You've got the dead vampire's wallet?"
"Not anymore. Gian, my father's sire, wanted the matter turned over to a Were."
A sigh of relief met her statement. "Good. Gabe's starting to twitch. He'll be awake soon, probably by the time I'm out of the shower-or sooner if I want to risk getting bitten by actually trying to hurry him along. We can get something to eat and then hit the casinos and clubs. How long 'til you get back?"
"I've met someone."
"Not a mate? Tell me you didn't find a mate!" There was panic and worry in Gabby's voice.
"Gian knows him. He's a policeman. I'll call you later, after... I'll call you later, when I can. I've got to take him back to where we found the vampire." Mystic wasn't sure whether or not she should give Christian's name to her friends.
Hawk's image rose in her mind. A touch of panic made her chest tighten. She decided against giving Gabby further details. Hawk would eventually find them in Vegas. "Don't worry about me," she said and hung up.
Heat rushed through her as Christian's hand covered hers. He closed the phone before taking it from her.
For one wild moment she considered bolting from the car the next time he stopped. But his hand returned to clamp down on hers as though he sensed what she was contemplating. Then all too soon they were pulling into a driveway, into a garage-the outer door closing and blocking any avenue of escape.