by M. L. Briers
“See, I just insulted the whole of womankind, and you didn’t argue back,” he said, and the teasing tone to his voice woke her brain up a little more.
“Did you want me to zap you?”
“Not really.”
“Then we’re good.”
“We’re mates,” he said, hoping that would get a rise out of her and snap some life back into the fire in her belly.
“I heard.” Claudia turned her head to watch the for sale sign go by. Now she knew that they were only a minute away from Marilyn’s driveway.
“I think we should consummate that bond as soon as possible,” Cain said and was greeted with pure silence. He didn’t even think she was breathing, although he could have missed it above the sound of the road and the roar of the engine.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that she was slowly turning towards him in the seat. “Oh, you do, do you?” Her words were clear and crisp, and he’d guess that if he turned to look at her now, she’d have a little more colour in her cheeks than before.
“Why wait, at your age…?”
“My age?” And she was back – he could hear it in her tone. All fired up and ready for a fight. “You’re older than I am.”
“Says who?”
“You know, some men are gentlemen, and then there’s you…”
“I’m not a gentleman for pointing out that you aren’t getting any younger?”
“Let me out right here,” she demanded.
Cain couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. “We’ve stopped, you’re home,” he said with a mocking tone, and watched her wrestle with her seatbelt, she couldn’t get out fast enough. “Do you need a man’s help with that, gadgets can be tricky for…?”
Claudia snapped to attention and eyed him with the best death glare yet. “One more word, I swear, just one, go ahead, make my damn day…”
“It’s night…” Cain didn’t regret it, because he’d got her all fired up and she was back to her witchy, confident self, and he took the blast of her magic like a trooper with only a slight groan against the pain.
“I warned you,” she snapped, finally getting the seatbelt free and clear, and she didn’t wait for the smooth flow of the belt running back into its housing, she tossed it behind her and escaped the confines of the car before she had a need to zap him again. “Muppet,” she growled and slammed the door shut with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.
When she turned towards the house; there was Cain, blocking her way and looking like a true bad boy with his big muscled arms folded over his broad chest, and that look on him was as sexy as hell in the moonlight. Claudia groaned inwardly – she had the urge to toss his taut backside across the grass and keep going, but she wasn’t mad at him – much – and the low rumble of a growl of annoyance rumbled in the back of her throat.
“Now you’re just teasing me,” he said with an easy smile that made her heart slam against her ribcage before it raced to the finish line without her brain in gear. “Do you know what you just said?”
“Yeah, get out of my way,” she bit back.
Cain took one long step forward, and she was forced to tip her head back a little further to look up at him. “I’m picking up mixed signals here, you say those words, but growl for me to kiss you…”
“Kiss me!” Claudia almost choked on the words.
Cain reached for her, his big arms wrapped around her body, and made her feel so safe and secure that the unusual feeling threw her for a moment. “Don’t mind if I do,” he said, a low, deep rumble in his chest that her mind concentrated on that sexy sound to the detriment of everything else.
Before her brain put two and two together, his warm, soft lips were already on hers, and Claudia could have thought to protest – if only she could have thought at all.
In fact, that soft kiss was only a testing of the waters, and it went from soft to demanding to off-the-scale feverish in what felt like seconds but could have been hours for all she knew.
There was a kiss, and then there was a kiss so hot, so sexy, so earth-shattering, dominating and possessive that it rocked her world and turned everything on its head. Kissing, as she knew it, would never be the same again, and neither would life, but that was a whole different matter, and right then, she didn’t give a damn.
~
“I told you, vampire, I do not need to explain anything to you,” Jake tossed back.
“If you don’t have anything to hide,” Neal said, and left those words hanging in the air.
“I do have something to hide, a damn body, and I’m guessing that you’d be the guy with experience of that sort of thing,” he said, hating that he needed to ask for help, so he hadn’t really asked for it.
Neal considered it for a long moment. “By killing the shifter you’ve guaranteed that Roland is going to send someone else…”
“I have that covered,” Jake informed him.
“How?”
“Magic.”
“Do tell,” Neal said with interest. Whatever he could do to keep Scott safe and Marilyn in his good books would be a price worth paying. Even if it was to help the insufferable man and not let him stew in his misery alone.
“Help me with the body, and you’ll have first-hand experience of it,” Jake said. He still didn’t consider that he was asking for the vampire’s help, only that they should join forces and they’d both get something out of it.
“I can live with that,” Neal said and caught a look on the man’s face that told him that might not be the idea. “And remember, we were last seen together, so if anything happens to me – dot, dot, dot.”
Jake understood. If he was going to kill the vampire, then he wouldn’t have made it, so the trail led back to him. He wasn’t that dumb. “I have no intention of killing you; you’re too valuable an asset while Roland is still a threat.”
“And then all bets are off?” Neal smiled to himself. He wouldn’t trust Jake as far as he could throw him, and given his strength, maybe less than that.
“From what I’ve seen, you have an interest in protecting my children – why would I kill the golden goose?” Jake tossed back.
“There’s a new one that I’ve never been called before,” Neal said, bending at the waist to haul the shifter up and over his shoulder. “Just remember, if you ever decide to take the risk and come after me, the only person who will ever know what happened is me – and my conscience will be clear.”
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
~
“That’s it! There is something seriously wrong with Clearview, and it never used to be like this!” Claudia shouted as she slammed the front door behind her.
Marilyn felt the rush of adrenaline hit her veins and scrambled to her feet from the sofa. She headed into the hallway and stopped at the sight of Claudia, aggravated and looking as if she was out for blood. “What happened?”
“The shifter happened!” Claudia snapped back, waving her arms around like she was directing aircraft.
“What did Cain do?” Marilyn felt the anger rise within her. Mate or not, if that man was out of line, she’d kill him herself.
“Not Cain, well, him too, but that’s a different thing entirely, no, the other shifter…”
“What other shifter?” Marilyn demanded. “You’re not making any sense…”
“And the vampire!”
“Neal?” Now Marilyn was confused. Neal had not long left her home, what trouble had he managed to get into?
“Yes,” Claudia snapped and then started to pace. “And Jake…!”
“Jake!?” Marilyn’s head was spinning. What did Jake have to do with anything?
“All three of them,” Claudia said and turned on her feet with military precision before she paced back in the other direction. “Throwing dead people at my feet.”
“Who died now?” Marilyn demanded and felt that pit in her stomach get bigger.
“The shifter,” Claudia said, turning a look of disbelief on her friend. “Keep up.”
&
nbsp; “Well, I’m trying, but you’re not making any sense,” Marilyn said. She drew on her magic and shot a straight back chair in Claudia’s path, the witch noted it, turned and was about to pace back the other way, when Marilyn snatched her feet from underneath her, and she fell back onto the seat with a squeal and a death glare.
“Now, let’s start from the beginning,” Marilyn offered her the best mummy voice that she could muster under the circumstances. “What happened when you left the house?”
“Do not handle me,” Claudia said, scowling.
“Then, don’t make me.” That time Marilyn offered her a sickly sweet smile and a sarcastic tone to go with it. “Spill it!” she snapped.
“I went for a walk with the stray following me,” Claudia recounted. “We got near Neal’s place, and there was Jake and the shifter…”
“What shifter?”
“The bad guy who’s looking for Scott,” Claudia said.
“Oh.” Marilyn’s scowl brought her eyebrows down over her lids and almost blotted out her eyes completely. Then she snapped to attention. “Is he the dead guy?” she asked with a newfound streak of enthusiasm.
“Yes.”
“Good!”
It was Claudia’s turn to raise her eyebrows, but she wasn’t surprised. “Vengeful much?”
“Definitely,” Marilyn said, and waved her hand for more. “Is Scott…?”
“He’s fine, wasn’t there.”
“Good. Then get to the good bit.”
“So Jake killed the shifter…”
“My Jake?” Now Marilyn looked surprised and confused.
Claudia turned her full attention to her friend. It was the first time that her lips had even considered twitching a smile, but they did now, along with a sparkle of wickedness in Claudia’s eyes.
“Don’t you dare!” Marilyn snapped.
“Your – Jake?”
Marilyn deflated on the spot. “You just had to do it,” she scolded her.
“How could I pass up that opportunity?” Claudia asked, grinning as if the Cheshire Cat had just gotten a nice big kipper for its supper.
“You and Neal are like two peas in a pod,” Marilyn bit out with annoyance. “Get back to the story.”
“So, there I was, walking along, minding my own business…”
“I’m sure that’s all you were doing with your mate in the woods…”
“Oh, somebody has their claws out,” Claudia said and pushed up from the chair. She started for the den.
“Where are you going, you haven’t finished telling me your story,” Marilyn said, following on behind her.
“I need a drink, quite frankly this hostile environment…”
“Hostile?” Marilyn all but shrieked.
Claudia stopped and poured herself a nice big whiskey. Then she drank like her life depended on it, as she noted Marilyn was waiting like she had an itch in her panties, and not a good one. When she swallowed the last of it, she breathed out like a fireless dragon. “That’s good.”
“That’s because it’s the good stuff…”
“I’m sorry, is there a cheaper bottle for guests?” Claudia tossed back.
Marilyn’s chin dropped down, and she glared at her from beneath her eyebrows. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
Claudia considered that for a moment. “Funny, that’s what I’ve spent most of the night saying.”
“To who?”
“To whom.”
“To whooooom on a broom!” Marilyn offered back with a snotty tone.
“To Cain…”
“And did you?” Marilyn asked, folding her arms, and cocking just the one eyebrow back at her. It was the mocking smile on her lips that made Claudia reach for the bottle once more.
“Not so as you’d notice, but I reserve the right to do so in the near future,” she said and groaned as she turned towards the sofa. Then she dropped down onto the seat like she was carrying a sack of potatoes and not just a glass of whiskey.
“The story?” Marilyn urged her on as she took a seat at the other end of the sofa and dragged her legs up under her.
“A story would imply I made it up, which I didn’t, there is a very real dead guy – somewhere back there.” She waved an absent hand at the window.
“Who isn’t Cain…?”
“No.”
“So, how did the dead guy end up at your feet?”
“Sheer bloody misfortune on my part – again,” Claudia tossed back as she nursed her drink.
“Start again…”
“I was walking through the woods…”
“From the place you left off.”
Claudia tossed her a mocking smile. “Say what you mean and…”
“Mean what you say – yes,” Marilyn nodded and offered Claudia a glare for her trouble. “The dead guy?”
“Jake did it.”
“We established that, although, I can’t imagine how…?”
“Snap,” Claudia said and ran a finger across her neck. Then she shivered, remembering it.
“How he could kill anyone, not how he did it,” Marilyn offered a little more forcefully. “It’s Jake.”
“Maybe you underestimated him?”
Marilyn did a double-take at her friend. “I did?”
“Exactly,” Claudia said and shrugged. “Maybe, we all did.”
“But – Jake?” Marilyn grimaced. “I’m not buying it…”
“Well, I’m not selling it – I was there, and…” Claudia dropped her head to the side and snapped her lids shut.
“Yuck,” Marilyn reached out and snatched the glass of whiskey right out of Claudia’s hand.
“Hey!” Claudia snapped upright and offered her a look of disbelief.
“You snooze, you lose,” Marilyn said, and knocked back the contents of the glass before Claudia could protest further.
“That’s a little heartless, considering, don’t you think?”
“I’m trying not to think, but this is swirling around in my mind,” she said and cocked her head to one side. “So, get back to it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
~
“Fine,” Claudia grumbled before reaching out and snatching the glass. Then she pushed up to her feet and stalked back to the booze. “So, Jake kills the shifter, and wham-o, he’s dead at my feet…”
“And Neal had nothing to do with it?” Marilyn offered her a curious look as she turned with two glasses of whiskey and strolled back to the sofa.
“Disappointed?” She handed Marilyn a glass and sat down.
“Not so as you’d noticed, maybe shocked…”
“That both men in your life are cold-blooded killers?”
“That’s a little unfair…”
“On who?”
“On whom?” Marilyn said and cleared her throat. “I think.” Then she made the moment last longer by sipping the whiskey.
“On who, on whom, which one are you cheerleading for?” Claudia asked, refusing to let it drop.
“Neither,” Marilyn informed her and fidgeted in her seat. “But the golf guy was going to kill you…”
“Ah-ha!” Claudia exclaimed, and Marilyn looked anywhere but at her. “I knew it.”
“You did not, and I’m not making excuses for what Neal did…”
“Perish the thought,” Claudia tossed back with a wicked smile that Marilyn didn’t need to see to know it was there.
“I’m just saying; we don’t know what that shifter was up to in the woods, no more than we know what you were up to in those woods.” She turned a steely gaze on Claudia and made her squirm.
“Nothing!”
“Really?”
“Not a thing…”
“I’m trying to believe you but your neck is going as red as your cheeks and that usually implies that you’re lying…”
“Am not,” Claudia said and buried her nose inside the glass as she took a gulp of the whiskey.
“Sure, you keep telling that to yourself because I’m not buying it,” Mar
ilyn said.
Claudia lifted her chin and sat up a little straighter. “Nothing happened in the woods – aside from the whole dead body thing.”
“Hmm.”
“If you must know, he kissed me on the drive…”
“I thought you walked?”
“Your driveway, just now, and yes, we walked, but we drove back.”
“I’m confused,” Marilyn said, taking a moment to think about it. “But he kissed you, ey?” She brightened then and offered Claudia a curious look and a big grin. “And?”
“What are we, teenagers?” Claudia hissed back.
“Don’t I wish?”
“Then you wouldn’t have Amber and Scott, so be careful what you wish for,” Claudia reminded her.
“Dish the goodies,” Marilyn said in a tone that said she wasn’t going to let it drop. Claudia groaned and slumped down against the back cushions. “That bad?” Marilyn offered her a look of pure sympathy for the fact that Claudia would have to spend the rest of her life with Cain.
“That good,” Claudia said and shot a look at Marilyn who had perked right up. That big Cheshire Cat smile on her face said it all – she wanted details.
“Dish or I won’t let you sleep until you tell me everything,” Marilyn said, and Claudia remembered that night of torture well from when they were teenagers, and she’d experienced her first real kiss. She’d tried to keep it to herself for as long as possible because she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about it, but Marilyn had all but tortured it out of her.
Marilyn had sung every song that she could think of that Claudia hated, over and over until she’d given in. “Fine, but if I’m going to spill, then you need to get snacks.”
“Done,” Marilyn said, rushing to her feet, and heading out of the room at warp speed.
Claudia did toy with the idea of heading out the backdoor, but she guessed that would be out of the frying pan and into the clutches of one sexy shifter – she knew the drill – that man was going to prowl around the house like a cat on a hot tin roof for the night.
Out of the two of them, Marilyn seemed less of a threat to her sanity or her panties.