Dara headed over to Dante and Mila, leaving Natalia with her mother and Pippa. She was reasonably happy that the danger point with Ava had been averted for now; she just wasn’t sure what to do with the situation without talking to Rafe. Before she did that, she wanted to make sure the female vampire was healing okay. She had promised Dante she would help his friend.
“Do you need some blood to help you heal?” she asked, kneeling down beside the couple.
The other woman looked up as she spoke, a smile crossing her pretty face. “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. I have fed from Dante and I am almost back to full strength.” She sat up, shooing Dante as he kept his arms around her. “Stop now, I am fine, Dante. I want to hear about the girl and her mother.”
“You almost died, woman. I told you not to reveal yourself without me. I’ll bloody well hover for as long as it takes my heart to start beating normally.” There was censure in his voice but also concern.
His words just made Mila smile more. “Overprotective males,” she sighed.
“The bane of every woman’s existence,” Dara agreed, immediately liking the other woman. “Natalia is well, no real harm done physically from the attack, though she’s grieving the loss of her father and pack members. Pippa seems to be enough to halt Ava’s descent into turning rogue for now, so we have a moment to take stock and work out what to do next.”
She looked around the campground before turning back to the couple. “Louis and his coven have pretty much sanitised the area too. Now we just need to wait for Kothari to return.”
“Can you control him, Dara, because I won’t have Mila anywhere near him if you can’t. He’s insane,” Dante said, his tone resolute. Just the thought of the Vârcolac being anywhere near his friend was enough to send a shiver down his spine.
“He’s hurting, Dante,” Mila interjected, turning to cup his face. “He doesn’t mean to be the way he is, he is lost and trying to find himself. Natalia will help him and you know my thoughts on this. We must help him too, in whatever way we can. We must declare our hand. It can be no other way.”
It was obvious this was a conversation they’d had many times before. From the stubborn expression on Dante’s face, it was equally obvious that he was used to winning this argument. Selfishly, Dara knew that they needed the help offered. If she had her way, she would convince Louis and some of his coven to help them find Gard and Rayne too.
“Kothari is focused on finding his parents. We all need to help him do that. This doesn’t begin and end with me and Kothi. If Gard and Rayne die… the stateside vampires will come en masse and there will be nowhere for anyone to hide. If you’re on our side, Dante, then you need to tell me now, otherwise I can’t do anything to protect you or Mila in the coming storm.” She didn’t expect him to take her words calmly, and he didn’t disappoint.
“Is that what the Vârcolac do, Dara? They threaten people into submission? What makes you any better than Kothari? You’re just as bad as him.”
Dara’s patience broke, the enormity of what was in front of them too much. She didn’t have time to pander to alpha male pride. She needed everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. Standing up slowly, she pierced Dante with a stern gaze. “Have a care on what you say, Dante Castillo. I told you before, Kothi is mine to protect. We are Vârcolac and that makes us family. We are pack too, and that makes us family. That double connection we have is stronger than anything you vampires or any Were could ever understand. I am no better than Kothari. We are Vârcolac and we are the same.”
She turned away, weary of the conversation. “Help us or don’t help us. It’s your choice. Just don’t come running to us when whoever is out there comes knocking on your door if you choose the latter. We will not be here for you if you do.”
“Why, Dara, I didn’t know you cared so much,” Agony laughed from the tree he was leaning against. He had returned just in time to hear the last part of her conversation with the vampires.
She spun around, disappointment in her eyes. “Just shut up, Agony. I don’t need your asinine comments right now.” She had hoped Kothi would win the internal struggle with his vampire. It appeared that was not the case.
“You shouldn’t beg, it’s not very attractive,” he laughed again, moving to come to her side. “We don’t need them anyway. Not while I am here. You’ve seen what I can do, sweet Dara. I don’t even need you either, but I confess I wouldn’t mind the company of your presence.”
His mockery was infuriating and she hissed in his face. “Keep talking… I dare you. I will kick your ass and keep kicking it until you shut up.”
“Hey! Watch your language! There’s a child here, remember.”
Natalia’s tone was outraged, and Dara could have kicked herself for forgetting the little one was present. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, glaring at Agony before stomping off in the opposite direction. She needed to get her temper in check, before she said or did something that couldn’t be retracted. The only good thing was it didn’t appear that Pippa had noticed her bad language, caught up with Ava and the story the other woman was whispering to her.
“You’re pretty feisty for a little human girl,” Agony commented, giving Natalia a long, steady appraisal. With her glasses and rumpled hair, she looked quite young, but her eyes were older, and they were red from weeping, though she wasn’t crying at the moment. There was a bruise on the side of her face and he took two steps towards her before he halted in his tracks. “I killed him.”
“What?”
She was staring at him as if he were insane. For some reason he didn’t find that as pleasurable as he usually did. “The vampire who struck you… I killed him. I was going to make him suffer but Dara wasn’t too impressed with that idea. I can heal your bruise with my blood if you’d like.”
Natalia stared at the man Pippa called Monster, and he truly was a monster. He appeared to only be a few years older than she was, but that was where any point of common reference ended. He thought telling her that he had killed someone was some kind of badge of honour? Then he offered to let her drink his blood as if that was normal too? What kind of lunatic was he?
“No, I don’t want to drink your blood. Seriously? You think that’s socially acceptable? Just the thought of it makes me want to throw up, and don’t think I haven’t forgotten that you were ready to put my mother out of her misery. Stay away from me, Kothari or Agony or whoever the hell you are. I don’t need your help and I don’t want to be your friend.”