Page 20 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood (A Paranormal Halloween #5)

The next evening, Aury found a spot in the parking garage across the street from the Aquarium and walked the half-block to Axel’s hotel. She waited in the lobby for Dr. Woods, since instructions to reach Axel had been messengered to him. Apparently, this was too top-secret for text or email.

“Did someone drop me into a movie? Is Jason Bourne about to hand me a burner phone and disappear?” she asked her psychiatrist when he arrived.

“Our world is full of secrets. If you’re ever overwhelmed, I’m available to help you navigate it.”

“Navigate being overwhelmed, or navigate your world?”

“Oh, this isn’t my world. I’m familiar with the way vampires protect their daytime hiding places, but my world is about forests and the moon, and rarely underground strongholds. As to your question, I will help you with whatever I am able, which should be both, under most circumstances.”

The two maneuvered through several locked doors, each with separate code, down some steps, and then gave a verbal password to a guard, along with a room number.

Down another long hallway, and Axel was standing in the corridor. “I apologize for the stairs. If I’d realized there wasn’t an elevator option to reach the vampire accommodations, I’d have chosen another hotel.”

“I need to do stairs,” she told him. “It’s fine. They take security seriously here, though.”

“Vampires are vulnerable when dead to the world. I rise before most, but it’s good there are protections for those still defenseless.

” He looked to her left. “Dr. Woods, it’s nice to finally meet you in person.

Please, both of you, come in. I have peach tea for Aury, and a selection of teas, colas, and water for you to choose from. ”

“Water is fine for me, thank you.”

And then they stared at each other. Silent.

“What’s going on?” Aury asked after a good thirty seconds of silence.

“The good doctor picked up on something I wasn’t aware of until we performed your oath,” Axel said, his voice calm, his diction precise. “He is rightfully angry on your behalf, and I’ve explained the circumstances.”

Dr. Woods turned to her. “He planned to tell you after you saw his memories of the night, and I actually agree with the timing. Trying to explain before you fully remember won’t be productive. Let’s find our seats and get started.”

She narrowed her eyes and didn’t move an inch. “It feels as if the two of you are being too careful. Someone please explain.”

“We are more than our beasts,” Dr. Woods explained. “I have a claim on you as my patient, when you were a teen and now an adult. I’ve helped you through some difficult times. It’s a longstanding relationship.”

“And I insisted he be present for this,” Axel said, “not understanding how protective his wolf would be of you.”

“We’re fine,” Dr. Woods said. “Most humans wouldn’t have picked up on that, and I apologize we let our issues bleed over.”

“What is it you tell me about children who experienced trauma being sensitive to conflict?”

He nodded and sat in a chair, and Aury got the distinct impression he was trying to dial whatever had just happened down.

“I agreed to the rules of safe passage,” Axel said, pulling Aury onto a sofa with him and tucking her into his side. She felt a little like a stuffie two dogs had been battling over, but she kept that to herself.

“The fact you required safe passage tells me you had an inkling there might be a problem,” Axel said.

“I had no specific concerns,” Dr. Woods answered. “My request is standard for an unknown vampire visiting the territory, but add in your reputation, and I’d have asked for it even if it wasn’t standard.” He looked to Aury. “Tell me, please, what you hope to get out of this exercise?”

“I need to know what happened. I get why he couldn’t let Maman and me run off to the hospital talking of superhuman monsters, but my memories were fucked with, and I need to know the truth.”

“Do you want it in pieces, or the whole thing all at once?” Axel asked.

Aury turned to him, considering. “Start with what you saw and heard on the way to the house, and stop once you’re inside, so we can talk about who is there and what you were thinking.”

“I shall stop if your pulse goes too high, or I sense panic. Otherwise, I will do as you’ve asked.”

Aury was suddenly on the street outside her old house, screams tearing through the night.

She staggered. Not in the vision, in her real body. Her breath seized up, chest tight, and for one hard second, she couldn’t inhale.

The scent hit her next. Everything at once . Wet asphalt, damp rot from the garbage can, the acrid trail of old rat piss. Fox musk, sharp and pungent. All of it layered under blood and terror .

She — no, he — moved. Superfast. Across the street. Through the gate. A door splintered open under her hand. His hand.

She arrived in the living room when the child was thrown.

Aury’s body flinched before her mind caught up. She felt the motion as if she’d thrown herself across the room — as if her small body were airborne, her bones about to hit—

And then the shift: Axel’s magic, his willpower , catching the little girl, slowing the forward momentum, but not enough. The child still hit the wall. A sickening crunch echoed through the memory, across the years.

He cushioned her fall to the floor, why had this never occurred to her? She’d had a slight concussion, but not serious brain damage. Of course he’d softened her landing.

But the damage was done. Her knee. Her leg.

The vision faded like mist, and she was back in the underground, the fancy hotel room.

Aury exhaled, forced her jaw to unclench. “Keep going. I was wrong. Don’t stop. I need it all at once.”

The vision snapped back like a rubber band.

She reminded herself: This is Axel. His memory. Not mine.

But her body didn’t seem to care.

This time, she heard his thoughts. Not just his sight, hearing, and senses — his reasoning. His intent. His fury.

A Celrau bitch was latched onto the mother’s arm, feeding, but before she… he, could draw his attention from the small girl, the tiny, crumbled thing on the floor dragged herself up using a table, arms trembling, legs useless, and screamed at the Celrau to leave her mother alone.

A quick peek into the Celrau slut’s mind showed him the small girl had climbed onto her back and beaten at her earlier, clawing and kicking, trying to save her mother. That’s why the bitch had thrown the child across the room like trash.

The child must live.

He made the decision in that moment.

He looked to the mother, frozen in place, wide-eyed, while the Celrau drained her, and knew the mother had to live as well.

The child could not grow up without the mother she fought so hard to defend.

He tore the Celrau off the woman and ripped the evil bitch’s head from her shoulders. Too late, he remembered how vicious the act is, the sounds of bones breaking, flesh tearing, muscles ripping.

He met the child’s gaze, expecting hysterics, but the girl gave a single, defiant nod and collapsed to the floor. With the adrenaline spent, her small body gave out.

Axel looked into her head, got a name, Aurélie.

He turned her pain receptors off, levitated her on a cushion of air, straightened both of her horribly bent and broken legs.

He lowered her, barely brushing the floor, so the blood trail would look right.

He moved her ten feet toward the mother, then laid her gently down.

He wrapped the Celrau’s head and body in a blanket, then walked to the kitchen in search of a knife.

The fang marks couldn’t be explained and had to be erased. This time, he remembered to freeze them both, mother and child, so neither would see him…

The scene went blank and returned, the mother climbing off the bed, sitting on the floor with her child so the butchered arm was mostly hidden, petting her and telling her to be still.

The vampire went into the little girl’s head, saw a father out of town on business, a happy family.

He learned names, professions, the markets where the mother shopped.

Favorite parks. He looked through the mother’s mind for something of value in the house, and discovered a diamond that never should’ve been on the premises without security there to guard the family.

And so, he ran through the recall of their evening and fashioned the girl’s existing memories so she remembered humans breaking in, torturing her and the mother to try to get the combination to the safe with the diamond.

Breaking the girl’s legs, cutting off the mother’s arm, and only leaving when they heard police sirens arriving.

That handled, he put the mother’s severed arm into the blanket with the Celrau body and head, and levitated the whole mess to the backyard after making sure no human minds were close enough to see.

A quick scan found the mind of a nearby neighbor, made him worry about the screaming and other noises, though he’d heard nothing, and call the local police.

Axel stayed with the girl and mother, watching over them, just out of their sight, and climbed into the attic as the police arrived, the ambulance not far behind.

He went into the heads of the paramedics so they would feel as if this mother and child were the two most important people in their world, worthy of extra care.

He went a step further with one, so whether his own child lived or died depended on the care these two got.

And he watched the proceedings, not releasing his hold on the child’s pain levels until she was on the stretcher and in the ambulance.

The vision collapsed.

Aury blinked hard, breath stuttering in her chest. She was in the hotel again, with the floor under her feet and the taste of adrenaline sharp on her too-dry tongue. Axel’s cool strength held her, bracing her. Solid and real.

He’d been her savior then, and now he was here to help her process it.

And fuck , it was a lot to process, but he’d trusted her to handle it. He hadn’t doubted her.