Page 85 of Mated By the Alphas
“There’s no plan for dealing with it, Hayden,” Remy exclaims. “Chicago’s fucked. It’s time to go. Storm says New York. I’m not sure about that. Wyatt doesn’t care. Jaxton doesn’t care, long as he has his own place.”
“Maybe if we all drink Ansley’s blood,” Hayden spits out, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I’m saying it, but if we’re all immune, we could fight them. Even an older vampire.”
“Sure, an older vampire if it’s just us against him, but you’re talking about a lot of makers there as well. They could be young, or they could be like the one we fought today. That would be a whole different game,” Wyatt says.
“Chicago is our home. It’s our mate’s home. Her Mitra’s home. Ansley and I talked about it on the way here,” Hayden says. “Not this specifically, but where we’d live, after the mating ritual is complete. I wasn’t going to bring it up until later, but we can’t just tuck tail. That’s not our way.”
“Right, and then when the Crimson Templars show up, we do what?” Remy asks. “Hide? Because I guarantee if there’s a vampire lair here, it won’t be long until they show up. It happened in Los Angeles. Dayton.”
“We’ve hidden before, and kept out of sight,” Hayden says, his voice getting harsher, more emotion thickening it. “After our parents were killed, after we lost so many of our brothers and all of our sisters. We learned how to control our Third Forms for a reason. They’re not going to go door-to-door hunting Scions like they did last time. If we wipe out the vampires, they won’t find anything, and they’ll leave.”
“Hiding in place?” Storm asks, finally looking away from me. “Yes, but not for the Crimson Templars. We always said we’d… tuck tail, as you put it.”
There’s tension in the air. Something is off, I can tell. Like everything is just wrong. Hayden is the Alpha. They’re challenging him, and their voices are getting louder. It’s turning into an argument.
Daisy feels it too, and she quickly scurries over to me and stares at me with big, green, concerned eyes. “What the fuck?”
“I…” I try to speak, but then I start shaking.
I feel myself collapsing. Someone catches me before I hit the floor. My vision goes white, but only for a moment, then I’m hovering over a school. In an instant, I’m pulled forward, right into the middle of it.
Vampires. Everywhere. But they’re the good kind of vampires: dead ones. There’s a battle up ahead, and I move towards it.
Then I see it. The answer. It’s right in front of my eyes as my mates tear into a vampire that looks ancient and withered, with grey saggy skin and blood-red eyes. But he’s not even a challenge for them. He tries to bite them, and they shrug it off with barely a whine. His claws do nothing, barely leaving a ripple in their fur.
Then they go for the kill and I sit up abruptly, gasping for air.
“Ansley!” Hayden shouts, his concern obvious. He’s right beside me, holding me, shaking me slightly. “Did you have another vision?”
“What the fuck, girl?” Daisy asks.
“I know the answer,” I gasp, pushing off Hayden to sit up fully. “But first I need a drink. Something stronger than water.”
“I’ll grab the Scotch,” Storm snaps, rushing towards the bar.
I suck in great gulps of air, tears running down my face, my arms and legs still weak. But I have the answer. It was a premonition. I know it was.
Storm hands me a glass. My hand is shaking, so he holds the glass and eases it to my lips. I immediately recoil at what tastes like old leather and it burns when it goes down.
“Not that!” I say, pushing the glass away and choking. “Gack!”
“Let me get her a drink. I’m the bartender,” Daisy squeaks out.
Hayden reaches over and holds my hand. Remy is on my right. Wyatt right above me, behind the couch. Storm is now guzzling the Scotch.
Daisy returns with a blue drink I recognize. Electric Shamrock. It’s supposed to be green, but we made them blue because that was the color curaçao we had in college. I reach for the glass and my hand is steadier. I’m able to sip, then drink enough to settle my frayed nerves.
“Thank you,” I sigh, catching my breath. I can talk. “Okay, listen, we have to complete the mating ritual.”
“Your vision was about the mating ritual?” Remy asks hesitantly.
“No, it was about the vampires. You were all there, in a school. There were a bunch of dead ones, but you were all fighting a really old vampire. Grey skin, red eyes. I got the feeling he was the father or grandfather of the others. You tore him apart,” I explain. “I even saw Jaxton. He was there too.”
“Because of your blood?” Hayden grinds out. “It gives us more power against the vampires? How does that have anything to do with the mating ritual?”
“It’s not just my blood. It was more than that,” I say, taking another sip of my drink.
“I don’t understand,” Wyatt says gently, pressing his hands to my shoulders and gently massaging. I tense up a little more at first, but then it feels incredible and I relax.
