Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,68

fight Anton now has developed somewhat of a …taste for your blood.

Say what?

Julia continued. He’s convinced that it’s good for him. And it seems that he will go to lengths to get more of it.

I was absolutely stupefied. Is that normal? He is turning into some kind of shifter vamp?

That’s not physically possible, dear. I don’t know why he’s decided that you’re suddenly so tasty but he’s certainly still being kept to the geas.

I didn’t know what to say. Could this be some kind of weird ruse that he’d cooked up? Jules, are you sure he’s not lying?

I compelled him. Even though he wishes you were gone from the pack, he was telling the truth.

He’s not sworn to you yet, none of the shifters are. Technically, they all still had the change of alpha get out clause to use as an escape if they wanted to leave.

Actually, he is. He swore on the Way whilst you were out for the count yesterday. Almost everyone did.

Oh. I was surprised. I’d been sure that he’d want to hold out and see if he could get a place with the Brethren. Then I realised what Julia had said. Hold on, ‘almost’ everyone?

Julia, who didn’t swear?

Tom and Betsy.

“FUCK!”

Everyone on the beach was looking at me now. I knew in my heart of hearts that neither of them would ever betray me, geas or no geas, unless compelled to by whoever their new alpha became. But I had a pretty good idea of who they wanted that new alpha to be. Tom had made no secret that he had the burning desire to join the Brethren’s ranks. And with Betsy apparently besotted by him, she’d probably follow him wherever he wanted to go.

How could they be so naïve?

Mackenzie, dear, they have to make their own choices.

Well, what if Corrigan compels them to talk about me?

Unless he specifically asks if you’re human or not, or that they have to tell him every single detail they’ve ever know about you, which I imagine would take several days of telling, then they won’t have to reveal anything about you. And Corrigan has no reason to suspect that you’re human. Are you sure that your anger is less to do with your worry about what they might say and more to do with your friends leaving you?

No. I paused. Sodding know-it-all. Okay, maybe.

They will always be your friends, no matter what they do or where they go. And the Brethren might not want them. I don’t think either of them have made their intentions known yet.

But Corrigan had already told me that he did want Tom. And Betsy had acquitted herself well in her evaluation so I couldn’t see why they’d turn her down either. I sat back down on the sand.

I have to go, projected Julia. Anton seems to be getting rather worked up that Lynda won’t leave him alone. Stay safe, Mackenzie.

Yeah, I sent back, and Julia severed the link.

Alex was sitting up and looking at me rather alarmed. “What the hell is going with you?”

“That was Julia. It’s just…it’s nothing.” I didn’t want to get into it. Tom and Betsy’s potential defection was just too complicated to explain and I wasn’t sure that Alex would understand my feelings about it. And the information about Anton was just too disturbing.

“Mack? What do you mean, that was Julia?”

“Huh? Oh, she can project to me the way that she can to the rest of the pack.” I said absently, my mind on other things.

“And could John do this too?”

I didn’t answer.

“Mackenzie, this is important. Could you hear John’s Voice too?”

“Sure. And Corrigan’s as well.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Mackenzie.” He pulled me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. “Only alphas can use the Voice and only then with their own shifters. Corrigan of course can use it with everyone, but then he’s mega powerful. But even he wouldn’t be able to use it on a human.”

I looked at him stupidly. “Alex, he can because I’m human and I can hear him. No alpha has ever had cause to use the Voice on a human so they’d never know if it works or not. And besides, John always said I could hear him because I spent so much of my formative years with the pack. It’s not a big deal.”

“Dude, it is so a big deal. Do you really think that alphas haven’t tried to compel humans before now? They’ve spent centuries trying to do that. Imagine the power