Page 8 of Winter Unleashed
I remembered Dr. Miriam Jackson as one of the board members for the children’s hospital. She’d come to the house for a meeting a few months back. Liam had told me that meeting had been to ask for more money, but from the look on his face now, there had to be more to it.
“Is everything okay at the hospital?” I asked, worried about the children.
He rose from his seat, looking down at me with a somber expression. “It is. Miriam wants to use a new and promising cancer treatment. The researchers are still reviewing the data and haven’t come to their decision yet, but she’s come to her own conclusion.”
I stood, taking his face in my hands. He looked more stressed than I’d ever seen him. There wasn’t much I could do about medical trials and chemotherapy, but I could offer as much comfort as possible.
I touched my lips to his for a tender kiss. “You got this, Mr. Fraser.”
He smiled and kissed me again before heading into the house. I watched him until I could no longer see him then settled myself back in front of the keyboard. Not ten minutes later I was on the floor with Philip on top of me.
“Let’s go, Miss Steele,” he said. His efforts had mussed his usually perfectly groomed dark brown hair, and his light brown eyes held a mischievous twinkle as he shot me one of his spine-tingling grins. He’s a good-looking man, but his vampire side made him a little creepy.
“I think you broke my wrist, Phil,” I groaned, holding up my left arm for him to examine.
He gingerly took my hand in his, turning it slowly. “Not broken, dislocated,” he said as he popped it back into place.
I couldn’t stop the scream, but the pain only lasted a few moments. I hopped to my feet and kicked him in the gut. “You enjoyed that too much,” I grumbled as I jumped back, out of his reach.
He popped up in front of me, and in the blink of an eye, I found myself flat on my ass. “You need to be faster, Miss Steele.”
“I think we can drop the formalities while you’re kicking the shit out of me.”
“As you wish. You need to be faster,Ember,” he said before kicking me in the stomach.
Annoyance at ending up on my ass again turned into a fury that spurred me on enough to move fast enough I tackled his ass. Once he was down, I pretended to stake him through the eye.
“Dead,” I said before rising to look down at him. A wave of exhilaration hit me when I realized it was the first time I’d pinned him. I’d gotten Stella a few times, but never Philip.
“Excellent job, Ember.” He beamed up at me in a way I’d never seen before.
I shifted my feet as the excitement turned to discomfort. “Yeah, that was too easy. What’s wrong with you?” I asked, righting the chair I’d been sitting in when he first tackled me.
“There’s nothing wrong with me,” he said as he finally stood up. “You tapped into your power and used your speed. Normally I can see you coming no matter how fast you think you’re going. That time you moved more like me.”
“Did I?” I nibbled my lip while trying to remember what I’d done. “I don’t remember feeling anything different.”
“Anger has a way of getting us to do things we wouldn’t normally do.” He shrugged. “You were angry, not just frustrated, but angry. Let’s try again, shall we?”
I tilted my head while he creepy-grinned at me. I waited for his attack because you don’t make the first move with vampires or tribreeds. Just like Philip and Stella, a lot of vampires can disappear and reappear in a new location within the blink of an eye, but we found they can’t teleport if we’re touching them.
The best way to fight against the bloodsuckers was to wait for them to get close then grab them and hold on until you’ve staked them through the heart or eye.
The only other way is to carry a long sword and decapitate them, but that’s not practical in modern society. Especially if we want to keep our existence a secret from the humans.
Just when I thought nothing was going to happen, the wind burst from my lungs as I fell forward. I threw my hands out just in time to stop my face from smashing into the concrete.
Stella straddled my back and leaned down to press her lips to my ear. “Surprise, bestie.”
I bucked up to fling her off, but she propelled herself into the air and landed ten feet away. Keeping her in my line of sight, I rose to my feet and tapped my inner wolf. Without me having to tell her, she knew what I needed. My senses sharpened so much I could hear the blood moving through Stella’s veins.
As if I knew she was going to move before she did, I took two steps to my left. When she popped up where I’d been standing, she glanced around in confusion. I used my forefinger to touch her chest ‘staking’ her in the heart. “Dead,” I said with a smile.
My jubilation didn’t last long. A second later, I ended up on the ground with Philip’s knee in my back. “Dead,” he said before bounding up into the air to land beside his mate.
Stella shook her head at me. “I don’t understand why you’re putting yourself through this. I mean, you did way better today than you have been, but why won’t you just use your Alpha power?” Stella asked.
“Because the one time I did, the packs got all riled up thinking I’m the Vinur. I don’t want to explain that I’m not every time I use it.” There was that and the more attention I brought to my unique power the closer we came to outing Liam.