2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zan

Although Anatoly didn’t like it when he went off to do favors for one of the many friends he’d acquired over the years, Zan loved helping too much to say no. Even in the face of Anatoly’s disapproval and annoyance at having to run the bar for a few hours, Zan almost never refused a request.

Today, he’d helped a pixie pull a nesting opossum mother and babies from a crawl space under her house. The opossum mother and babies were adorable, but there was obviously something wrong with the mother. He’d volunteered to drive them to a wolf shifter who ran a rescue.

Turned out he was allergic to opossums, and he'd sneezed all the way to Titan’s place.

Then he walked into Sanguine to find Anatoly lip locked with a gorgeous human woman. Not a sight he expected to come back to!

“Catch her!” Anatoly growled, one hand still holding his nose. Zan could see a few drops of blood and felt a little guilty. The human had packed a punch.

Or at least he thought she was human; his sense of smell was off after so much time near the opossums.

“No way,” Zan said, blocking his vampire from leaving. “How about an explanation?”

For the first time, Anatoly looked confused. “Couldn’t you smell her? Didn’t your inner cat recognize Rissa as a mate?”

Shock made Zan drop his arms and draw his head back. “What?”

“Why couldn’t you feel it? Smell it? She’s meant to be mine—ours! She’s supposed to join our flock. I felt it the moment our eyes met. That explains why she was able to walk in despite the wards. The magic meant for her to be ours!”

Panic hit Zan hard. “What a night to find out I’m allergic,” Zan muttered, rushing out the door. A quick survey of the area didn’t reveal her.

“Allergic?” Anatoly asked, appearing next to Zan as if from thin air. Some vampires could do that, move so fast it was as if they could teleport.

“It’s not important,” Zan said, waving his hand dismissively. “We need to find her, and my nose isn’t working right now. Can you track her down? Take your owl form and look for her aura?”

With a determined scowl, Anatoly nodded. “I’ll find her, but I can’t use thrall on her.”

“I know, but maybe you could give her a little persuasion without using full thrall,” he suggested.

Making a future flock member obey with thrall was one of the few taboos among vampires. The only time they considered it appropriate was to save a flock member's life. This situation wasn’t life threatening, but to Zan, it felt dire.

“Zan!” Anatoly admonished.

“Fine!” Zan said, giving Anatoly a little shove back into the bar. “Tell her I was joking. Offer her money, or a car, or whatever it takes to get her back here!”

Anatoly let Zan guide him out the back of the bar to the narrow alley where there was enough privacy for the vampire to shift into his bird form.

“Don’t watch,” Anatoly said once they were out there.

“I’ve seen you do this before, it’s not a big deal. Hurry up. If she gets into a car, we might lose her forever!”

Anatoly grumbled but closed his eyes and focused. Unlike born shifters, who had an animal half to guide them when they were in their shifted form, vampires had to learn everything from scratch. Not only did they have to painstakingly learn how to mold their magic into a shift, but also how to use their animal bodies. Nothing came naturally to shifted vampires, and some never succeeded at controlling their animal form.

Anatoly was one of those vampires. He’d spent decades learning to shift into a great horned owl, but got frustrated that once he was shifted, he spent a lot more time crashing than flying. He was so frustrated, he never learned to shift into anything else or bother practicing in his owl form often.

As Zan watched, Anatoly shifted into a massive owl, and he swore he’d make the vampire practice more in the future. The moment the shift was done, the owl staggered a little and flapped his wings, upsetting his balance and almost nose-diving into a pile of trash.

“You’re really shit at this,” Zan muttered, picking Anatoly up. The owl glared at him, and he felt the vampire's embarrassment through their link. “Yeah, I know. Sorry. Do you want me to give you an assist?”

He felt Anatoly’s approval of the suggestion. Bunching his muscles, Zan launched the owl high into the air. Zan held his breath, watching Anatoly flutter his wings and barely miss an electrical line.

When the vampire was finally flying with appropriate coordination and cleared the top of the nearby building, Zan sighed with relief. A fall or hitting a powerline wouldn’t kill Anatoly, but it might ground him, and they’d lose the human.

The one advantage Anatoly had over natural-born shifters was that his clothes shifted with him. It would make it easier to talk to the human when he found her.

“Rissa,” Zan murmured as he headed back into Sanguine and out the front door, ignoring the few customers. They could drink the bar dry if they wanted to; all that mattered was finding the human. “Please come back to us.”

***

Anatoly

It took so much concentration to fly that he almost missed seeing Rissa’s bright aura. Finding her surprisingly far from the bar, he flapped hard to catch up.

When the human first walked into the bar, he’d been surprised. He’d paid for some expensive wards to keep humans out. Unless they were accompanied by a magical creature, they didn’t even see the sign for the bar. He’d planned to ignore her until she went away; Sanguine was no place for a human alone. Then he’d really looked at her and saw her iridescent aura and felt a pull. The same pull he’d experienced when he first met Zan.

She was meant to be his.

Zan should’ve been instantly attracted and joined in the kiss instead of getting upset. He’d have to find out what that was all about later, but right now their focus was on getting Rissa and her strong right hook back.

When Rissa got angry and drew back her hand, he’d expected a slap, instead he got punched. She packed a lot of power in that move, and although his nose would be healed by the time he shifted back to his human form, having it broken had hurt enough to slow him down.

Between his sluggish reactions, and Zan’s inability to recognize Rissa as theirs, the whole situation had deteriorated quickly. Anatoly wasn't above kidnapping Rissa, but that would make it harder to gain her trust. He needed to use all his charm to talk her into giving them another chance.

Too bad Zan was the charming one.

Gliding lower, he saw her enter a parking lot. Her car must be here somewhere. He hated how dark the lot was. It’d be easy for someone to prey on her here.

Diving between a van and a truck, he tried to land but ended up tumbling head over tail feathers. Once he finished rolling, he focused on shifting, then had to lay on the ground and re-orientate himself. Sitting up, he winced. He’d put a dent in the van, but the owners might not even be able to tell considering how many dents were already there. At least his dent was the smallest.

Getting to his feet, he tried to brush the dirt and dust off his clothes as he stepped out from between the two vehicles. He heard the telltale beep of a car being remotely unlocked and used his preternatural speed to get to Rissa before she could get in the vehicle.

Not wanting to startle her, he put himself on the other side of the car. “Please, can we talk?”

“Shit!” Rissa screeched, and stepped back, fisted hands coming up ready to defend. “Where the hell did you come from?”

He pointed in the direction of Sanguine. “I took the back alley here so I could catch up with you,” he lied.

She didn’t lower her hands. “Fuck off! I don’t get involved with cheaters.”

As she spoke, her aura flared. She might not have any magic yet, but with that amount of courage and inner strength, once they exchanged souls, she’d make a powerful human.

“I’m not a cheater!” he swore. “Let me explain, please!”

She sneered at him. “So that blond guy wasn’t your husband?”

“He is, but we, uh…” How to explain in a way that a human would understand?

“He doesn’t mind if you cheat?” she asked. “Or do you mean he doesn't mind as long as he doesn’t catch you?”

“We’re in an open relationship!” Anatoly declared, remembering what the humans called it.

She lowered her fists, and her sneer disappeared, replaced with suspicion. “He seemed really upset for you guys to be in an open relationship. What if you walked in, and your husband was making out with me?”

That was an easy question to answer!

He gave her a wicked smile. “I’d join the kiss.”

Anatoly’s phone started ringing, startling him. Only three people had his number, and only one of them would ever call him without texting first. It was painful to ignore Zan’s call, but he needed to focus on Rissa.

She was watching him with an inscrutable expression. He could tell her anger was lurking under the surface, but she was listening to him, and that was significant.

“You guys like to share?” she asked.

“In certain situations, yes,” Anatoly answered, knowing that the “situations” would only be Rissa. It was hard for vampires to find their flock. Some vampires went feral and were put down because they never found it.

He’d been ecstatic when he met Zan six years ago. To find another member of his flock made him want to believe in the old gods again.

She was regarding him with slight interest. He could tell their kiss had an impact on her, and Zan was a beautiful specimen. It meant he might be able to draw her back with the promise of pleasure.

He let his aura flair with sensual magic. She wouldn’t be able to see it, but even as a human, she should feel it. Not all vampires could do this, but he was one of the lucky few.

“Come home with me,” he purred. “Join us for a night. Zan is an excellent cook. He’ll fix you a gourmet breakfast in the morning.”

He was stretching Zan’s skills, but he could cook a few basic things. Besides, he wasn’t trying to sell her on Zan’s food. He was selling her on having the two of them together.

“Do you guys do this often?” she asked, looking torn.

“Almost never,” he said. “The person who joins us has to be very special. That’s why I chased after you.”

She didn’t look convinced. “What about Zan? Are you sure he wants this too?”

“I do!” Zan said, appearing from the shadows and jogging up to stand behind Anatoly. His sense of smell might not be working as it should, but Zan could still track Anatoly through their soul link.

Wrapping his arms around Anatoly’s shoulders, Zan rested his chin on the top of his head. It was a familiar position and made some of the tension leave Anatoly. It felt good to have backup.

“You were pissed,” Rissa said. She sounded almost accusing. “And now you’re all excited at the idea?”

“A lot changed,” Zan said with a shrug.

Rissa looked back and forth between them. Anatoly could tell she was doing a lot of thinking before finally shaking her head.

“No,” she said, reaching for her car door. “Just no. You guys are tempting, but you have complicated written all over you.”

“Wait, don’t go yet!” Zan said, tightening his hold on Anatoly. If he hadn’t been holding him, Anatoly would’ve rushed at Rissa and blocked her from getting into the car.

She gazed at him warily. “What?”

Before he could answer, a cop car rolled up, flashing their lights. A voice blared out, “Larrissa Jones, step away from the car. Turn around and put your hands over your head.”

“Fuck!” she cursed, then glared at him and Zan. “This is your guys’ fault!”

He could easily deal with whatever the police wanted. In a way, their arrival was perfect. He could make her problem go away and appear the hero.

Anatoly grinned at her. “Stay here. I’ll take care of this.”

“Only kill him if you absolutely have to,” Zan whispered as Anatoly pulled out of the shifter's embrace.

“Of course,” Anatoly said, then strode toward the cop car, speaking loudly. “Officer, I’m so relieved you’ve arrived!”