Kalina ~ Book Four

“What are you doing here?” Sylvie didn't bother standing as her red-eyed monster prowled into the light.

“You didn't think I’d leave you alone with everything going on, did you?” He sat at her side after nodding an acknowledgement to Kora and leaned against the canyon wall.

Well, his reasoning was sensible enough. Her other mate bonds showed Kian and Rowan were still back at home. She understood Rowan's reasons- the pack came first- but Kian's not coming with Elias bugged her.

She sent her annoyance down his mark and smirked at the flood of wordless questions rushing back. Elias’ voice brought her back down to earth.

“Besides, I need to tell you something.”

Sylvie’s heart sank. That couldn't be good. “What?”

“They found Penny. She was drained of blood, and Grey has gone missing, too.”

“Oh, fucking hell. Poor Penny. You think Grey was kidnapped, too?”

“I don’t know.”

Kora cleared her throat. “Why would the Vampires interfere with your business, Mr Fletcher? I don’t see the purpose.”

“Neither do I, though each time I need to leave Sylvie to fix whatever is happening in my building, she is left unprotected. The last time, a human who penetrated our wards slit her throat and almost killed her. I don’t believe in coincidences. Do you?”

“Not at all,” Kora replied, her eyes taking on a steely glint. Sylvie took some consolation that Bea was already dead and wouldn't face the wrath of her mother, the postmortem images she had scrounged up of Kora’s victims scarring her mind permanently.

Small mercies, indeed.

Sylvie groaned and lay back, staring at the stars. They glimmered and brightened. “Why can’t it be easy?”

“What?” Elias asked.

“Everything! Why can’t we be left alone like we have for the past ten years? What the hell changed?”

No one had an answer for her. Not even the stars. They were listening, though. She could tell. She blinked at her thoughts and rubbed her face, hoping it was the tiredness and not some hereditary psychosis developing.

“Can’t you just ask Kian to glamour you or something to make you look your age so you don’t need a ‘face’ for Fletcher Enterprises?”

Elias exhaled a brief laugh. “If he made me look my age, my love, I’d be dust.”

Kora bristled at that. Sylvie didn’t even glance at her. If she wanted to have a cow about age gaps, she could look no further than the thousands of years between her and Magnus. Magnus was so old, he basically looked his age, with grey whiskers and wrinkles beside his eyes.

At least Elias still had the smooth skin of eternal youth. He actually looked a little younger than when they first met. Maybe they had the mate bonds to thank for that.

“I meant, he could make you look ten years older than you were when we met.”

“Maybe. I’ll look into it.”

She rolled her eyes and snuggled down, hands pressed lightly on her belly as she stared at the constellations. No pollution. Endless sky. It turned out the vast open desert had its perks. “Let’s just stay here a while.”

Kora inhaled sharply and sighed. “Someone's coming.”

Elias stiffened as Sylvie sat up, stifling a groan from her tired muscles and craning her head to the side as if it would help her hearing. But there was nothing—no sound beyond the wind.

She was about to question Kora when a whistle trilled over the canyon—one long high note followed by a shorter lower one. Goosebumps broke out on Sylvie’s arms, and she stood, unclipping a gun from her hip and holding it in front of her.

Elias moved silently, stalking up the path to the top of the canyon, while Sylvie stayed by Kora. Her mother seemed unbothered by the intruder, which eased some of Sylvie’s nerves, and when Elias clicked his tongue and called out to her, she put the gun away.

“Yeah?”

“Come here.”

She glanced sideways at her mother, who just shrugged and lay on her back again, tracing the stars above with her fingers.

Away with the Fae.

Sylvie jogged up the path and paused at Elias’ side, scoping out the landscape.

Three shadows stared back at her. The one in the middle had golden hair glowing like a halo from the moon at her back.

“Claude?”

Will stood at her side and, without acknowledging, Sylvie turned and whispered something in Claudine’s ear, which she nodded to, and he darted off in a sprint back the way they had come. The other shadow, Sylvie recognised as Caroline, the shifter from the mixer, hovered a moment longer before following Will.

Sylvie held herself back from calling after her and noted their direction. Unlike the trail she had taken with Kora, their path along the canyon disappeared into a cave.

“What are you doing here?”

“Mother, daughter bonding,” she answered wryly.

“With your mate?” Claudine quipped back, equally wry.

Sylvie just clicked her tongue and closed the gap between them, pulling her into a hug. “How are you?”

“Fine. You?”

The clipped tone of her answers stirred some anxiety in her chest.

“Surviving,” she answered.

A slow smile crept up Claudine’s lips as if in spite of her, and Sylvie raised a brow.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yep. Are you going back to the pack soon 'cause I need a ride?”

Sylvie cracked her knuckles and peered back towards the canyon's edge, where her mother was only metres below—mother-daughter time had ended.

“Yeah. We can go now.”

Claudine clapped her hands and rubbed them. “Great. Rosie better not have touched my stuff, I swear.”

That was more like the old Claude, and Sylvie smiled. “Alright bitch calm down. I need to grab my stuff.”

The ride back wasn’t unpleasant.

Kora slept in the back seat as Sylvie drove, following the taillights of Elias’ car, and Claude yapped from the passenger seat.

“I’ve been training these shifters for weeks, and they just aren’t getting it. It should be easy by now, but they only want to laze around and fuck. I mean, I’m all for a good fuck, but I need a challenge, you know? Some of them have jobs in town, but it’s no excuse, honestly. It’s retail, for Christ's sake, in a backwater dump. Will and Alpha Fraser are the only ones who can fight in the whole fucking pack, and even they aren’t trained properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“They fight so fucking dirty, no rules.”

Sylvie chuckled. “And what’s wrong with that? Did they beat you?”

“Maybe. But only just.”

“Skins or furs?”

“Skins. They never shift around me either, even after the wards. Like, I don’t get it. It’s safe now.”

“Maybe they still feel anxious about it. I know I would, being out in the open like that.”

Claudine shrugged. “I guess.”

They drove silently for a little while, the landscape changing to familiar forests. Finally. Almost home.

“So, what were you doing out there?” Sylvie asked as flippantly as she could. She tried not to read into the guarded look that crossed Claudine’s face.

“We heard a scream while monitoring the perimeter. Came to check it out.”

Oh. Sylvie blushed red hot.

“Guessing that was you?”

“Yep.”

“Quite a yell on you. Nearly shat my pants.”

Sylvie laughed loud enough to make Kora stir, and she quickly stifled it. “I thought you’d be used to spooky shit living in that ghost mansion.”

“Don’t even joke,” Claudine laughed right back. “That place is so fucking haunted.”

“I knew it.”

They crossed Kian's border a few moments later, and Kora woke with a sharp breath. “Stop.”

“What?”

“Stop here,” Kora repeated, her glassy eyes flitting around the forest. Sylvie slowed the car to a stop despite not knowing if her mother was even awake and flashed her lights at Elias. He reversed until he was idling beside her, and Sylvie pulled the parking brake.

“What is it, Kora?”

She just shook her head, still searching the forest. “I must go now. Too much. Too much noise here.” Claudine gave Sylvie a knowing look but climbed out of the car and into the back of Elias’s.

She was losing it again.

It always went this way.

They'd spend time together, and she spiralled into crazy talk. Granted, this was the longest time they had spent together with her lucid, so she just appeased her mother. Kora slipped into the front seat and glanced long and hard at her.

“Guard your heart, my child.”

“I-”

But before Sylvie could speak, Kora made a U-turn and drove away. “She still has my shit in the trunk,” Sylvie groaned before slumping in next to Elias.

He kissed her forehead before driving them home, dropping Claudine off close enough to run to her old cabin. “See you in the morning,” Sylvie mumbled.

Rowan and Kian uncurled on their bed, and each held out an arm as Sylvie crawled in, still coated in a fine layer of dust.

“Sorry for being grumpy at you and not saying goodbye.”

“Princess-”

“No.” Her pillow muffled her voice, so she turned her head to the side, catching Elias as he ghosted into the room and reclined on their armchair. While he didn’t need to sleep, he often did to keep the three of them company. He winked at her and closed his eyes.

“No more being dicks to each other.”

“Who was being a dick?” Rowan rasped, burying his head in her tangled hair. “You were just your delightful self... Ouch.”

Sylvie pulled her knuckle out of his ribs and laughed softly.

“No more secrets.”

Elias cracked an eye at that, and she gave him a pointed look.

“And no more hiding yourselves through the bond,” she grumbled. “It’s mean.”

Kian exhaled a slight laugh. “You only don’t like it because we’re better at it.”

“Kian,” she groaned, but he rubbed a hand down her spine, making her shiver.

“I’ll teach you,” he said. “Will that help?”

She thought about it for a moment, but when a smile crept up her lips, Kian knew he won. He tickled her lightly and smacked her ass enough for her to hiss.

“Kian!”

“Yeah, Kian,” Elias purred with a smirk. “That’s my thing.”

Sylvie slithered from the bed and slipped off her clothes as Elias pushed himself out of the chair and curled behind her. His hand rested lightly on her hips, his chin brushing against the crown of her head.

Rowan propped himself on his elbows, a smile creeping along his lips as Kian sat, eyes shining.

Bad Kian.

Sylvie grinned, opening up her bond and forcing her reprimanding energy over him. Kian shivered, and Rowan grinned.

Both were hard as a rock.

But instead of giving them a show, Sylvie twirled, hooking her fingers in Elias’ belt and pulled him after her into the bathroom, only turning at the last second to flash her teeth.

“Sweet dreams,” she crooned.

Rowan leaned his head back, groaning, his hand fisting his cock, but Kian didn't dare. He didn't even move.

His eyes glittered, and Sylvie could feel hers twinkling right back. She bit her lip, the moment between them far too intimate. Elias grabbed her chin and pulled her lip free, kissing her hard.

When he pulled back, he held a message in his eyes, one she had learnt long ago.

Never show weakness. Never back down.

Sylvie withheld her gulp, meeting his look with one of her own. Yes, Sir.

He grinned as if he could read her mind and pulled her into the bathroom, closing the door behind them.