Author's Note: Hey, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm updating all of my stories as quickly as possible. No story is impacting another on how long it takes to update, it's simply that I can't get myself to write for certain stories; basically, I have no muse for them. I'm sorry if this frustrates you all, but I'm trying my best and that's all I can really do at them moment, unless you all want crappy, half hearted chapters I had to force out of my butt. Anyways, thanks for reading.

Chapter 38

"Malik, how could you?" Irina demanded, clearly upset as she faced her now human mate, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "How could you kill him? I know you don't like him at that you felt like he was trying to take me from you, but that doesn't mean you had to kill him like that. Especially so brutally!"

If Irina was upset, Malik appeared to be tortured. She also appeared to be very, very confused. "No. No cry. I kill bad man!" she said urgently, pointing to the ashes. "I protect! He bad. Bad as others!"

"He wasn't a bad man, Malik," Irina said, taking a deep unnecessary breath as more tears gathered.

"Yes! Dark man bad." Malik let out a low growl, frustrated, and stomped her foot.

"It's too late," Carlisle said, taking a step forward. "He's gone, and arguing won't bring him back." He took another step towards the two women warily, knowing just how dangerous Malik was.

It was at that moment that Malik became truly aware of Carlisle, as well as his mixed scent. She snarled at him, but remembering how upset Irina had gotten, didn't launch herself at him. Instead, she crouched in front of Irina to protect her from him.

"Malik!" Irina shouted in shock, reaching out to grab Malik in case she was about to attack.

"He smell like other bad man and bad woman. Danger," Malik said, pointing at Carlisle. "Dangerous to you."

"No, he is not," Irina said with a huff, getting increasingly frustrated. "And what are you talking about? What bad man and woman?"

"Holy fuck balls, a hellhound," Sly exclaimed as her and the rest of the search party arrived at the scene and caught the new girl's scent. "And she's not trying to kill anybody. What the hell is going on?"

B, who had tensed and stepped in front of Kate upon scenting Malik-only to be picked up and forced behind Kate, who was trying to protect her, which then resulted in them scuffling over who would protect who-paused as she caught sight of the girl's magic. There were only small tendrils lingering around the girl that linked her to her summoner, but they were clearly broken, which meant the hellhound was supposed to be free. However, since the hellhound wasn't trying to kill anyone, it was clear that something strange was going on. Realizing this, B relaxed fractionally, but Kate didn't. She refused to take any chances in regards to her mate's safety.

"Oh, let me go, you great buffoon," B hissed, slapping at Kate's hands insistently.

"I'm just trying to protect you, damn it," Kate grumbled in reply, but finally let B go. However, the girl wouldn't get far if she tried to do something stupid to put herself in danger, no matter how fast the cat was.

"Yeah, yeah, who cares?" B shot back, which would have resulted in Kate dragging the girl right back behind her, had Tanya not stepped between the two.

"So, what exactly happened while we were away?" Tanya asked, turning her gaze from the hellhound to Irina.

"God damn it, Tanya," Sly grumbled, not liking the idea of any danger near her mate. She started to try and step in front of the blonde in case the hellhound would suddenly try something, but at one glare from the coven leader, Sly backed down. Instead of standing between Tanya and the hellhound, she stood next to her mate with her arms crossed over her chest, clearly grumpy that she couldn't have her way.

B couldn't help but snicker. "Looks like we know who's wearing the pants in your relationship, huh Sly?"

"Shut it, kit," Sly hissed back, then let out another hiss of pain before whirling to glare at Kate while rubbing her ass. The ass who had just sadly been injured by a pretty powerful electric shock.

"What? My hand slipped," Kate said, trying to act innocent.

"Oh, so you just happened to grab an ass that didn't belong to your mate?" B asked, frowning as she put her hands on her hips.

"Wait, what? No," Kate exclaimed, trying to fix any possible damage. "I mean...I barely touched her. And in the first place, I was just trying to avenge your honor for calling you a kit. I mean, you're clearly grown up and all...clearly." As she spoke, her gaze moved to one of those clearly grown-up parts of B.

"My eyes are up here," B said, putting a finger under Kate's chin and forcing the vampire's gaze from her breasts to her eyes. "And you won't get to look at that part of me naked anytime soon unless you come up with a good explanation as to why you touched Sly's ass, giving her an electric shock or not."

"No! Please, anything but that!" Kate said, clear agony gleaming in her eyes at the thought of not getting to touch or see her mate in the near future. "You know I'll die without sex."

"And what a pathetic death it will be," B was quick to reply, clearly not sympathizing with Kate's pain.

"Take that, blondie," Sly exclaimed with pride.

"You do realize I'm blonde too, correct?" Tanya asked dryly. "So, let me ask you this; is blondie an insult from you, or a simple statement of fact?"

"Shit," Sly muttered, not sure exactly how to reply.

"And you thought I was bad, huh Rosie?" Emmett chuckled, earning him a half hearted slap as behind them, a few wolves chuckled. Some were thinking about how glad they were that they were single, while others were worried about their imprints, and realizing that out of all the imprinted couples, not a one who wore the pants in the relationship could turn into a wolf. How many of them would get fucked with by their women on a whim?

Across the clearing, Malik looked up at Irina with confusion, unclear about what exactly what was going on among the group that had just appeared.

"Don't worry about them. They're just weird," Irina said, stroking the smaller girl's hair-only to frown when she realized that the sneaky hellhound had cuddled up to Irina, arms wrapped tightly around her with the most adorable expression in existence on her face. And all without Irina noticing, no less. However, she couldn't dredge up any anger at Malik, at least not while that current expression was on the girl's face.

The majority arriving group continued to banter among themselves-B and Tanya partially just messing with their mates for the hell of it, Sly and Kate honestly worried they weren't getting any that night, with Emmett and Rosalie just bantering for the fun of it. It honestly appeared that it would never stop, until Carlisle decided it would be best to speak up and state what happened.

"Laurent is dead," he said as a start, and immediately, everyone shut up and turned to stare at him.

"Fucking finally," Kate muttered with a low breath of relief. Bickering forgotten, B leaned into Kate, hiding her smile of relief in the blonde's side.

"Hell yeah!" Sly exclaimed at the same time, pumping a fist in victory.

From her place glued to Irina's side, Malik grinned widely, proud of her kill and of the other's excitement over what she had done.

This, of course, earned a lot of disapproving looks towards Kate and the two cat shifters, as no one felt a death should be celebrated-or, in cases like Tanya's, she felt Laurent's death shouldn't be accepted so happily right in front of Irina, her sister, the one who should was likely incredibly upset about it. Really, Sly and Kate couldn't have waited at least until Irina wasn't present to celebrate? At least B was trying to hide her expression.

After giving Kate, Sly, and B a disapproving glance herself, Irina turned to look at Malik-only to find the hellhound still grinning with pride. "Really?" she asked with exasperation.

Immediately, Malik fixed her expression, trying to appear remorseful and regretful so Irina wouldn't get mad at her again. Irina rolled her eyes, but decided that the talk would have to be resumed later.

"Anyways, Malik is the one who killed him," Irina said, gesturing to the girl still glued to her side. "She's also my mate."

"Huh," Sly said, letting out a huff of surprise. "Who would've guessed?" She almost added "Good job taking out the trash since I couldn't do it" but at a glare from Tanya, thought better of it and shut her mouth.

"So, she killed him because she felt he was trying to take away her mate?" B asked with curiosity and understanding. B knew that was exactly what she would do herself if someone tried to take Kate away from her, especially with how haywire her instincts were. It had already taken everything she had not to launch herself at Sly despite the fact that Kate was the one who touched her ass, which was just ridiculous. To B, she felt that Malik would feel a similar desire, if not a stronger one, to do the same.

"Yes, and no," Carlisle said, trying to figure out the best way to explain exactly what had transpired in the other group's absence.

"Bad man!" Malik exclaimed, a growl in her voice. "Needed to die. Just like the dirty man and fire head woman."

"Well, that's what she says, anyways," Irina said, a little nervously, as she had no idea who Malik was talking about. Everybody else seemed a little confused as to the other two that Malik was talking about as well, and clearly had no idea what this information meant. That is, all but one, who got a very uneasy feeling in her gut.

B stepped forward, towards Malik, and hissed at Kate when Kate tried to stop her. Kate, sensing how important this was to her mate, let B continue forward, all while keeping close to B's back. Just because Malik was Irina's mate, didn't make the hellhound any less dangerous in Kate's eyes, and she didn't want to take any chances.

B, however, didn't give a rat's ass about Malik being dangerous. In fact, the idea didn't even cross her mind. "Malik," B said, stopping a few feet away when the hellhound started to tense and bare her fangs at the cat shifter. "I need to know. The people you're talking about...they're red eyed vampires, right?"

Malik looked up at Irina, who nodded, urging Malik to speak. There was clear worry in Irina's eyes, having noticed B's sudden mood shift, not to mention the slight scent of fear that suddenly came from the shifter.

"Yes," Malik said, looking back over at B.

"The woman has long and wild bright red hair, and is tall, beautiful, but looks almost feral, right? And the man is a little bit taller than her, with long sandy blonde hair, a cruel face, and a stocky build? They're mated, aren't they? And their names are James and Victoria?" B asked in quick succession, already starting to shake with a mix of fear and hatred.

Malik blinked at B, clear surprise on her face. Then, that surprise turned to suspicion. "Yes. You know bad people?"

B swallowed hard, and in that moment, it felt like even her heart stopped beating. Kate was so worried that she stepped in front of her mate, grabbed B by the shoulders, and shook her repeatedly while calling her name.

Finally, B recovered from whatever state her destructive emotions put her in, taking a deep breath and lowering her head. "Oh, I know them alright. And I want them dead."

Not too far away, Victoria's powers twinged in warning. Danger was coming for them.