Page 9 of Cimmerian

“Say anything, and one of these carves the heart from sleeping beauty there,” she hissed. My chest was tight, but not with nerves. It was tight with anger, and disgust. That she tried to put all of this on me. That she dared to threaten us. I glared at her but got to my feet. Monica tsked. “I see you don’t sleep armed. Step one in not getting yourself killed as a Venator.” She jerked her head in the direction of where my makhairas rested in the sheaths.Shit. I always slept armed. Always.

But there was one thing my mother hadn’t accounted for -- the mate bond between Jasper and myself. I didn’t have to speak aloud in order to get his attention. Monica kept one blade pressed tight against my skin as she opened the tent door, shoving me out into the drizzling rain.

“Jasp…” I called my mate as Monica led me just outside of our makeshift encampment. “Jasp!” I dug my feet into the mud, refusing to move another inch, and she pressed the blade in firmer. I didn’t want to be out in this part of the forest, and I definitely didn’t want to be out here withher.

“For fuck’s sake, Ava. Move,” my mother commanded.

“What the fuck do you want?” I asked, lacing as much venom into my voice as I could.

“To talk, without that nasty dog hanging over your shoulder.”

Yeah. Sure. I didn’t know what she wanted, but we had walked far enough away from the tents. I could just make out the tip of Beau’s orange tent through the murky gloom. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“We’ll see about that.” But she didn’t dig the blade in any deeper than the slight pinch on my back, and we didn’t walk any further. She sighed, sounding for a moment like the mother I remembered. “There was a time when you used to trust me, you know.”

I laughed quietly. “That was, oh let’s see. A few murders ago? Give or take?”

“You never used to be this cynical. I knew this life wasn’t for you. That dog in your tent has corrupted you for a life you weren’t ready for.”

I rolled my eyes, wrapping my arms around my body to protect myself from the damp chill in the air. “Keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day it’ll actually be true.”

“Look, Ava.” The pinch of the blade was gone, and I spun around to look my mother clearly in the face for the first time in months. She had aged, far more than she should’ve in the few months it had been. Her face was lined with wrinkles, her once bright eyes deep set in the hollows of her face. Where was the strong, powerful woman who took no shit? “I need your help.”

I couldn’t stop my mouth from dropping open. “You have to be fucking kidding me. You wantmeto helpyou, after what you did to my friends? Me? Not in a million years.” She couldn’t be serious. But no, this was Monica, my mother, master of deception and zero shame to make note of. Of course she would drag me out of bed at knifepoint, and expect me to go along with whatever she was going to say next. I wouldn’t be surprised if she anticipated me begging her to let me be a part of whatever she had planned. But she wasn’t dealing with Ava, her sweet, naïve daughter anymore. She was messing with Ava, Venator of werewolves, and I had been preparing for this moment since the last time I had seen her.

I shifted my neck further into her arm, just enough she wouldn’t notice. Where the hell was Jasper?

As if on cue, Jasper burst from the tent with a roar, half shifted already. The door to our tent lay in shreds behind him, and he charged toward us with speed I knew for a fact he didn’t have as a human. His fury was pumping through my veins, his anger flooding my head. I had almost slid out from her grasp entirely, but Monica whipped my back against her, pressing her blade once more to my skin -- this time to my throat.

“Back the fuck off, dog. Take another step closer and I’ll bleed her dry. I don’t care she’s my daughter. She’s a means to an end.” My mother brought her mouth closer to my ear. “How did you summon him?”

I shrugged, using the movement to once again give myself a bit more room to move. Just an inch. I just needed one more inch. “You’re the expert. Figure it out.”

Jasper growled deeply in front of us, not breaking eye contact with me. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. I don’t think she’ll actually hurt me. She wants something from me.” I was angry, and I was disgusted, but I wasn’t afraid. Monica needed my help, which meant she needed me. Which meant for a moment, I had the upper hand.

Monica squeezed her arm against my stomach. “How are you communicating with him? You’re a human, barely a Venator.” She dragged the tip of her knife along my neck, brushing the loose strands of hair out of the way, until she came to my mark. “Ah. So you’ve decided to taint your blood. Still doesn’t explain the communication. That’s supposed to be for wolves only.”

I squirmed against her touch, not wanting her to be near my mark. It was sacred, holy. Not for her fingers to maul and examine. “Yeah, well we can. So there’s that. Can we get on with the Monica show now?”

She dropped my hair, bringing the blade back to my neck. “Oh, silly girl. Still so naïve. This was never the Monica show. No, there are much larger players at work here. I’m surprised you haven’t worked that out yet.”

Her fascination with my mark allowed me to finally get myself into a defensive position, and I gave Jasper a look. “I’m unarmed so we’re going to have to do this old school. You ready?”

“Always, baby.”

A rustling from the other tent had us all looking in that direction, only to see Beau pop his head out. “What the hell is going on out here?”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Monica cursed under her breath. “Did you really need to bring this asshole with you?”

“Yes,” I gritted out between clenched teeth. She was getting on my last nerve. What did she have against Beau? And if she actually expected me to help her, this wasn’t exactly winning me over to her side.

Beau was out of the tent and ripping his shirt off before I could blink. Monica pulled her blade off my stomach, brandishing it at Beau. “Don’t even think about shifting. One of you is bad enough. I don’t need my daughter communicating with you in some fucked up telepathic way too.”

Beau shot me a sharp glance. Somewhere along the way, we had forgotten to mention to him our bond extended to a mental link, but that explanation was going to have to wait. Behind Beau, Merrick stuck his shaggy head out of the tent. He had to know what was going down out here.

Monica laughed, a cold sound over my shoulder. “I see you two have finally met. The two greatest disappointments in my life, in one place. Lucky me.”

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