Provoked

CHAPTER 13

Kane tried to shrug Dage’s hand off his shoulder, barely keeping from growling again when he failed. Sure, he could knock his brother on his ass, but what would that accomplish? So he tromped through the sparkling underground corridors to Dage’s private study.

The small room sported several chairs around a sofa table. No desk for the king—he preferred an informal setting. No paintings adorned the walls, no feminine touches hinted Dage had let Emma mess with the room. Only family was allowed in the underground study—well, family and Max. But Max was family.

Once inside, Dage released him and pressed a button next to the door. A full screen instantly covered the far wall, and seconds later, Terrent Vilks filled the screen.

Kane nodded. “How’s Hilde Freebird?”

“She’s a pain in the ass.” Terrent tied his thick hair back from his scowling face. “The doctors reduced the extreme swelling in her brain, thus healing the concussion. She had a hairline fracture along her skull, and they applied laser treatments to heal it, though it’ll take a couple more days. Yet somehow from a hospital bed, she’s managed to organize a boycott on the delivery of my favorite fruit. Something about pesticides.” The wolf growled low. “I’m immortal. Pesticides don’t hurt me.”

“When will she be fit to travel?” Kane asked mildly.

“Three days—I tried for two, but the doctors vetoed me.” Terrent rubbed the scruff covering his rugged jaw. “She’s doing her chants every day, and I can’t get a sense she’s enhanced. Quite the talent she has. Any luck with the daughter finding Jase?”

“We’ll conduct tests soon,” Dage said.

“I’ll conduct tests, and she’s not doing anything until she’s ready,” Kane countered, his voice lowering.

Both of Terrent’s dark eyebrows rose. “Interesting. I’ll let you two deal with that. For now, we have a problem with the inoculation of wolf shifters.”

Kane breathed out hard. “I don’t have time for a problem.” He’d invented an immunization for all shifters against Virus-27, which had turned them from shifters to pure animalistic werewolves . . . with no way to turn back. Personally, he’d had to take down shifters he’d once considered friends after they’d been infected. He’d been ecstatic when discovering the cure for shifters, and hoped to take that and find a cure for vampire mates and witches, thus rendering the virus moot. Hopefully before the damn thing went airborne. “We’ve been inoculating shifters for two solid years without problems—we should be about done.”

Terrent shook his head. “There’s evidence the inoculation isn’t working.”

“Bullshit.” There was no doubt the cure worked. Kane stepped closer to the camera.

Terrent’s eyes flared black. “Let me rephrase that. I believe, based on tests of the immunization, that someone has tampered with the concoction and made several of our vials useless.”

Kane rubbed both hands over his face. “Who would do that?” He shook his head. “Okay. If someone got close enough to the vials to tamper with them, it’s someone close to you. The Kurjans have a mole in your organization.”

“I contacted the feline nation, and they’re experiencing the same problem. Somebody has gotten to the vials, and we don’t know how far back the tampering goes. We’ll have to immunize everybody again just to make sure. In the meantime, my people aren’t protected, and the virus is still out there.”

Kane swallowed. “You’re right. The only smart thing to do is to inoculate everyone again. Test the vials, find the good ones, and use them. I’ll step up production of more vials in our labs to send to you.” The ticking clock on his back just increased in speed. At some point, the Kurjans would figure out how to make the virus mutate and go airborne. It was merely a matter of time. He needed a cure before that happened. A cure for all beings. He’d find one, after he got his brother back.

Terrent tugged on his ripped T-shirt. “We need to come up with some sort of plan for who’s doing this.” He glanced at his watch. “Also, the demons have increased the bounty on Maggie’s head. You need to send the little wolf to a new location—everyone knows she’s at your headquarters.”

Dage exhaled. “Any idea why the demons want her?”

Terrent focused back on the camera. “No. No clue. But I do believe the lass is in danger.”

Kane frowned. Something was off there. Was Terrent lying? It was incredibly rare for the wolf to lapse into the brogue since it had been centuries since he’d lived in Scotland. Maggie was a little wolf shifter who had been captured by the Kurjans and infected with the virus, resulting in amnesia. She had no clue who she was and had sought refuge with the vampires. Why would Terrent lie about her?

Terrent tapped an ear communicator that had been hidden and then nodded. “Okay.” The smile he flashed held way too much amusement. “Hilde Freebird would like to speak with you.”

The screen went black. Two seconds later, a woman sitting in a hospital bed and covered by a hand-sewn quilt squinted black eyes at them. Curly blond hair had been pinned up on her head, and pale, smooth skin covered delicate features. She looked to be about forty years old. Living on the farm had been good to her. “You the king?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Dage gentled his voice.

Fire flashed in her dark eyes. “You keep your grubby, vampire hands off my granddaughter—got it?”

Dage bit his lip. “Yes, ma’am. I won’t touch her.”

“Humph.” Pale hands clutched into the quilt. “I know you vampires—not a one of you can keep it in your pants. One of you seduces my sweet Amber, and I’ll behead you myself.”

Heat started to climb into Kane’s face. “Maybe you should’ve told sweet Amber about her gifts . . . about immortal creatures.”

Dark eyelashes fluttered as Hilde turned her attention to him. “Which one are you?”

“I’m Kane.”

“Ah.” A small smile pursed her fine lips. “The smart one. Good. Make sure you explain this carefully to your brothers; my granddaughter will not be messing with demons. The second I’m healthy to go, we’re going. Understand?”

No. But arguing with a lady sitting in a hospital bed seemed like a bad idea. “We’ll keep her safe, Ms. Freebird. I promise.” Kane donned his most charming smile.

“Don’t even think of bewitching me, dumbass. I’ve known plenty of vampires in my day. You’re all full of charm. And don’t think for a second I’m unaware of how often you mate to gain the gifts of enhanced females. You even think of having a vampire mate Amber, and you’ll regret it. My powers go a lot further than just destroying demons.”

Kane coughed twice. Okay, so he’d considered mating Amber. Shit. He was still considering the possibility.

Dage nodded. “It was nice to meet you, Ms. Freebird, and I hope you feel better soon. We have to go now.” He hit the button on the wall, and Hilde disappeared.

Thank God.

“Fuck.” Kane shook his hands out to stop the adrenaline ripping through his veins. “Why can’t anything go as fucking planned?”

Dage headed straight for the bar set in the corner to pour two scotches. “Any more word on the internal struggles of the demons?”

“No. Apparently whatever was going on has been handled. The demon nation is strong enough to deal with us now.” Kane rubbed his chin. “I wish we had found out what type of insurgence was happening.”

Dage returned and shoved a full glass in Kane’s hand. “Sit down.”

Kane tipped back his head and downed the liquid before sitting in a thick leather chair, his boots settling on the neutral Persian rug. Warmth coated his throat to land in his belly. “This had better be fake leather.”

Dage sat in a matching chair, facing him. “You’ve never given a shit about leather before.”

“I give a shit now.” Kane met his brother’s stare evenly, irritation clawing down his spine.

“That is a faux-leather chair.” The king took a small swallow of the smooth drink. “What’s up your ass?”

Who the hell knew? “We’re the most powerful race on earth, and you’d think we could sit our butts on something other than pure leather. How hard is that for you to understand?” Kane’s fingers curled over in the absurd need to hit something. Was he turning into Talen or what?

Dage’s smile lacked any semblance of humor. “Do I need to handle you?”

“Handle me?” Heat burned inside Kane’s head so fast, so hard, he was shocked steam didn’t flow with his words. “I fucking handle you, king. That’s my job.”

“Is it, now?” Anybody remotely familiar with the king would recognize the soft tone of voice as something to run the hell away from.

Kane was beyond running. “Yes. From day one, I’m your fucking advisor. Your sense of logic in a violent world. You wouldn’t know how to handle me.” The words spewed out too fast for him to stop, even while he knew he was being unfair. Horribly unfair to a guy who’d never wanted to lead—never wanted to be king.

“She is a beautiful woman.” The king took another drink.

Kane stopped cold. His mind blanked. “What?”

“Amber. She’s stunning and has the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen. Very pretty girl.”

Taking a deep breath, Kane sat back in the chair. His mind clicked to life. “I was rallying about the unfairness of life and how I have to be logical when Talen gets to just hit things. Could we get back to that?”

Dage shrugged. “That’s boring. And your lot in life isn’t why you’re acting like you have a stick shoved up your ass.”

If Kane had the energy, he would hit his brother. Right now, the world on his shoulders was holding him down. “I offered to mate her.”

Coughing, Dage wiped liquid off his chin. “You did what?”

Kane shrugged. “I mean, before we, well, you know— I offered to mate her. To get her abilities so she wouldn’t have to use them. So she’d get mine. You know how I can shield all emotion, as well as throw emotion out in rare occasions.”

Dage set his glass on the polished oak table. “That’s a very logical reason to mate a woman, Kane.”

“Exactly.” Thank God somebody understood. “She refused, saying she wants love and all that crap. But our mating really was a good idea.”

“So after she refused, why sleep with her?” Dage’s silver eyes narrowed.

Why, indeed? Kane brought his glass to his mouth, frowning when he realized the crystal was empty. “Well, we’d just rowed across a freezing lake, and I needed to warm her up.” The reason even sounded lame to him. He flashed a smile. “And like you said, she’s stunning.”

“You like her.”

“Sure. She’s smart, sexy, and dedicated to what she believes in. She said she’d help us save Jase.” What wasn’t to like? Her idealistic view of the world was silly, but not unlikeable. “I still think mating her is a good idea.”

“Maybe. Though you should be careful, the marking is just one part of a mating. Emma’s genetics started to change even before I marked her. Of course, I knew she was destined to be my mate.” Dage’s eyes darkened as he talked about his woman.

Speaking of which—sometimes his brothers were little old ladies who gossiped. “You didn’t have to tell Emma that I’d slept with Amber.”

“I know.” Dage sighed. “But you of all people know that our scientists need the facts when doing research. Emma wanted to take Amber’s blood immediately, and she needed to know you’d been intimate. Just in case.”

“I hate when you turn my logic against me.” Kane shook his head. He would’ve done the same thing.

Dage leaned forward. “Amber’s gifts are unique, and she’s definitely an enhanced female, or potential mate. Maybe we should find someone else to mate her—a vampire who believes in love and all that crap, as you put it.”

Kane’s shoulders went back. Heat spiraled through his spine. “If she mates anybody, it’s going to be me.”

One dark eyebrow rose. “Why is that?” Dage asked mildly.

“Because she’s the only demon destroyer we’ve ever found. That kind of power should stay in our family.” Now that made sense.

“Interesting.” The king sat back in his chair. “So, at what point did the mating brand appear on your hand?”

Kane frowned. “Huh?”

Dage pointed to Kane’s right hand. “Your palm.”

Almost in slow motion, Kane turned his head to view his palm. Dark and raised, an intricate Celtic knot with an elaborate K in the middle stood in strong prominence, filling his entire palm.

The Kayrs marking.

He dropped his glass to the floor. “Holy hell.”