Desert Heat (Complete)

{Jedediah’s P.O.V.}

It has officially been three full weeks since Vivienne went missing. My thoughts were becoming a slippery slope, and I was seriously close to believing that we would never find her. Thankfully, Adrian, Louis, and Henri came through just as I thought all hope was lost. They went to the coven that Claude’s little minion belonged to, and they were able to apprehend him with the help of their coven’s king. Louis practically had to make a business deal with them, and it was at the cost of Henri’s single life. Their coven had a princess who was still unwed, and they agreed to hand over their traitor in exchange for Henri’s hand in marriage.

Henri refused the exchange, at first, but Adrian and Louis reminded him that Vivienne and our pup’s lives were both at stake. That was enough to make Henri reconsider, but only after he saw this princess did he immediately change his mind. Apparently, the princess of this coven was a model of some sort, and she took his breath away; at least, that’s what he told me as he practically bragged about his newly betrothed when they brought us the traitor. Unfortunately, due to the fact that vampires don’t show up in pictures, he had to settle with explaining her looks: 5’10”, 135 pounds, legs for days, with fiery, red hair that was curled and danced when the wind blew. Her eyes were an icy green with skin as white as snow. Just based on what Henri told all of us, she had to be a looker. Even then, in my mind, Vivienne would always be the most beautiful.

“Henri, we get it. Your new fiancé is hot as a f**k, but can we hurry and figure out where Vivienne is now? The faster we find her, the faster we get to go home to our wives!” Brandon shouted at him. Henri was still daydreaming until he heard Brandon call him out, which put an end to his lovesick trance.

“Get a grip, Henri, she is not even your vampire mate!” Andre told him.

“I cannot keep waiting for my mate, Alexandre! I will be 100 years old in two years. I must find my future queen now so that I may take over the coven when the time comes. Unlike you werewolves, we take over once we are a century old. That is when we are considered to be of age in our world.”

“I know how the laws of the vampire work, Henri! I’m a hybrid!” Andre exclaimed.

“Enough!” Dorian yelled. “Henri, I’m happy for you. But Brandon is right. I … I mean, we would like to get home to our wives. And the only way we can do that is if we find Vivienne. How about we get a move on and have this traitor from your fiancé’s coven tell us where this Claude fucker is hiding.”

“Oui, oui, I am so sorry. You are correct. I will have to woo my Chloe when we return from rescuing my mon ami, Vivienne.” I shook my head at him. I hated it when he called Vivienne mon ami. I knew that it meant friend, but just hearing him refer to her as his—in any way, shape, or form—had me snarling inside and Gunner wanting to rip his head off. It didn’t help that not too long ago he wanted to marry Vivienne, but she was the one who turned him down. In hindsight, the prince getting engaged like this was better for me.

We made our way back to the prison where Claude had escaped from because that was also where they were keeping his sidekick. When we got there, we noticed that Amos, the rest of the team, and the dark witches had also returned, and I witnessed the witches throwing what looked like lightning bolts of all sorts of colors at one of the prison cells.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked Amos.

“Jed, perfect timing,” he replied. “Our group was able to track down the witch that betrayed our new Wiccan comrades here.”

“Where did you guys find her?” Mikey asked as he came up to us.

“Gamma, we found him hiding out in an icy lair inside of a f*****g glacier. Apparently, he had created his own little safe house that blocked out magic to prevent the other witches from finding him, but he forgot to hide his scent. Once Amy and Albert picked it up in the wind, it led them to the glacier. Amy found an opening just small enough for her to fit in which slid down into the heart of the glacier. Thankfully, she was able to mind link and the witches did the rest of the work after Amy had located the target.”

“What are the witches doing?” I asked, trying to look behind Amos.

“Their own form of magical punishment,” he answered. I c****d my eyebrow at him. “Trust me, you don’t want to know. Remember, they’re dark witches, they don’t play by the rules. Not the way the Luna’s friends do, at least.”

“Okay …”

“Amos!”

“Alpha!”

“What did the dark wizard have to say when you found him!?” Dorian wanted to get down to business. I did too, don’t get me wrong, but I was curious to see just how dark witches punished their own for betraying them.

“He admitted that he disabled the magical barrier that should have prevented Claude from taking Miss Vivienne. And it wasn’t just one time.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t just one time!?” I exclaimed. That really got my attention.

“Jed, he said that Claude offered him 250,000 Euros if he would lower the shield once every couple of months to allow him to spy on the Dubois family. According to the wizard, Claude was hell-bent on revenge against the Delta’s family and their coven for exiling him.”

“He tried to rape Vivienne! What did he expect would happen!?” I shouted.

“Claude apparently saw nothing wrong with his actions because, in his mind, Vivienne was always meant to be his. He had plotted to take her for years, but she was never alone. He just so happened to be set free the day before the Delta’s family came to visit. The same time that you and Vivienne met. He didn’t know that Vivienne stayed behind for her mate, rather, he assumed she stayed for the Delta. After all, that’s her brother. But the second time he came to spy on her was when he saw you two on a walk around the pack grounds. A week before she went back to France.”

“Wait, are you saying that he has been spying on us?” I asked in complete dismay.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Why the f**k couldn’t I sense him!? I’m a tracker!”

“His scent was being masked, courtesy of the wizard that is currently getting his a*s handed to him,” Amy answered. “Even the guards who patrol the pack border had no idea it had been breached. It also didn’t help that he wasn’t using the front gate either. The fact that he could shimmer was his biggest advantage of going undetected.”

“So, Claude knows that Vivienne has a mate. Does he know that she’s pregnant?” Mikey asked.

“She’s what!?” my entire team exclaimed. I growled at him in annoyance.

“Oops.”

“Dammit, Mikey, this is precisely why we don’t tell you s**t!” Brandon shouted and smacked him upside the head.

“I don’t f*****g understand how you and Sin are so horrible at keeping secrets!” Dorian shouted at him as well.

“Jed, is that true?” Amos asked. “Is your mate pregnant?” I sighed and just nodded my head. I half expected my team to get pissed off at me for keeping this a secret from them, but they didn’t. What they did afterward shocked me, though. Half of the team pushed past the witches into the cell where the wizard was and started to wail on him left and right. The other half of the team went to the cell where the vampire traitor was, courtesy of Henri, and started to knock him senseless as well.

I looked back at Dorian, and he just shrugged his shoulders. About ten minutes later, all I could hear was both prisoners screaming that they would tell my team what they wanted to know. Both cells were officially open for all ears to hear and all eyes to see. The vampire errand boy allowed Adrian to drink his b***d to get the truth from him, while the wizard allowed the witches to cast a truth spell on him.

After interrogating them both for another five minutes, they were spilling their guts about Claude and his plan to practically starve Vivienne into a delirium. Once she was in a state of madness, he would dress like me and get her to tell him she loved him.

“What the f**k would that do?” I asked, looking at Adrian.

“Jed, the marking on a vampire can actually be reversed,” he told me. “Unlike a werewolf, a vampire’s mark can be reversed if the host admits they’re in love with another. Claude is betting that if Vivienne tells him she loves him while she is in a delirious state, it will make your mark on her disappear. Only then would he be able to mark her for himself,” he explained.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because, if a vampire marks one that already bears another’s marking, it would kill the host.”

“Wait, are you saying that if he were to try and mark her now, he could kill her!?” I asked.

“Not could. Would. At least, that is how it works for us,” Henri said. “Because Vivienne is a hybrid and holds a wolf spirit within her, we don’t know how she would react. But Claude doesn’t appear to be willing to take that chance, and that is good for us.”

“Only if we find her in time!” I exclaimed, becoming even more agitated by the second. “Where did he take her!?”

“Claude is hiding her in plain sight,” Adrian answered.

“What?”

“Jed, according to the b***d of Claude’s minion, as you call him, Claude has Vivienne in your townhome.”

“WHAT!?!” the entire pack shouted. Our voices carried so loudly that we shook the land around us and the surface.

“Hold up, why did me and the other bounty hunters pick up his f*****g scent all over the damn place here!?” Aries asked.

“That was the wizards doing,” a witch answered. “He was carrying Claude’s scent in an amulet. He would open it in random areas of the region to keep those tracking him from leaving Antarctica, essentially sending them on a wild goose chase while Claude carries out his plan to re-mark the young girl.”

“Where in the townhouse is he!? I never once could sense him! Adrian, you were in there!” I exploded, throwing my arms up like a maniac.

“Again, that is the wizard’s doing. He created a safe house underground. Like the one he built for himself in the glacier. Only this one is built beneath the sands of the desert. Dark, cool, and dry.”

“The best conditions to force a vampire to starve,” Andre said with a growl.

“You’re telling me that this fucker built an underground lair beneath my townhouse and has been keeping Vivienne there this entire time!?” I bellowed. “And this whole f*****g time, we’ve been here in f*****g Antarctica!?” I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Vivienne was literally right under my nose, and I had left her. I had completely left her and came to the other side of the world when she was right underneath me.

“We need to get back now!” Andre hollered. “Pere! We need you and several of the other vampires to shimmer us back home!”

“Andre, wait!” Dorian shouted, grabbing his attention.

“What!?” he and I both roared.

“We can’t just shimmer back! It’s night here! Which means it’s daylight over there! Everyone would die if they shimmered us back to the desert at this hour.”

“Alpha, what if they shimmered into the dungeon? It’s always dark down there, and there is plenty of room for all of us,” Amos suggested. I looked at him and wanted to k**s him for his brilliant idea.

“Yo, that could work!” Brandon agreed.

“Dorian, I can’t wait! I need to get back home!” I cried out. He looked at me and I could see the wheels turning in his head. “Come on, man!”

“Okay, fine, but we need a plan of action. We don’t know if Claude may have booby-trapped the lair or even your house at this point. He may know that we’re gone right now, and that puts us at a disadvantage,” he explained, and we all nodded.

“What is the plan, mon ami?” Andre asked him.

“First, we need to know exactly how big this underground safe house is, and if it’s livable. I’m sure it is, but we need to figure out how to get in without being seen or heard.”

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“Andre, can we use Dani?” Dorian asked him.

“Non, that is not a good idea,” Adrian answered on Andre’s behalf. Claude is a skilled vampire, and he will be able to sense another from a mile away. As soon as Adrian said that, Andre snapped his head up and his expression told us the gears in his head were turning like a hamster on a wheel.

“Andre, what’s up?” I asked him.

“Claude could sense another vampire from a mile away, but what about another supernatural who could disappear just as quickly as they appear?” he asked everyone. We all looked at him like he was insane.

“Dude, care to elaborate?” Mikey asked.

“A warlock.”

“Warlock!?” we all repeated.

“Where the f**k are we supposed to find a f*****g warlock!?” I asked.

“Mon frère, do not worry about a thing, I know exactly where we can find a warlock that would be willing to help, well, a warlock hybrid to be exact,” he told me and smiled. Though I was happy that Andre seemed to have a plan up his sleeve, I wasn’t all that keen on using a warlock to help us find Vivienne. But, at this point, I would use all the help we could get.