by Alice Bello
Better to slip away and heal before the blood loss caused you to lose consciousness, or worse, bleed to death.
No...
Something new and brutal inside Lucy would not allow the weak creature stumbling from her to get away. She’d tried to beat her to death: that made her the enemy. And there was only one place for the enemy.
Six feet under.
Lucy flashed across the graveyard, iron in hand, and she swung mercilessly. First taking off the wolf’s good leg at the inverted knee, and then relieving Olivia of what was left of her handless arm as she raised it to defend herself. Lucy swung and swung, chopping at the crippled werewolf as if she were kindling for the fire.
Finally the beast lay on the ground, whining in agony, blood seeping from her mouth, her breath coming raggedly as the blood slowed its spurting and her heart slowly gave up.
Lucy looked down on her adversary and a growl—a freaking growl!—issued from her lips. She raised the sword in both hands and brought it down on the mangled wolf’s neck, severing her head and ending her wretched life.
The howling wraiths of the long dead warriors of the cemetery howled one final, satisfied chorus, and then fell deathly silent, basking in the blood and the pain and the fear that had been inflicted.
Holding the blood dripping sword in her hands, Lucy felt so powerful, so alive. She could feel the spirits of the dead werewolves circling around her, no longer filling her with their power, but basking in the bonfire glow of hers. A power that felt different now. A power steeped in the essence of the wolf.
She licked her lips and tasted werewolf blood mixed with her own. It didn’t taste good as much as it tasted like a balm, a balm she had earned.
Lucy heard a low gasp and whirled around to find Vin, Delia’s brother, and a vampire, crouched on the great wall surrounding the cemetery. His eyes were wide and startled, yet as he took the sight of Lucy in, they turned dark until they are nearly black.
“I thought you’d need my help. When I picked up your scent at your house... your blood... ” He licked his lips as his eyes ran over her blood splattered body. “But obviously you don’t need rescuing from anything.”
“I-I... ” Then Lucy felt the certainty. “I was defending myself.”
“Yes, yes indeed. You defended yourself to their deaths. Two fully shifted, pureblood werewolves. Amazing.” He came closer, a spark of fear in his eyes.
But that spark turned quickly to want and desire, and hunger. Lucy could feel his hunger for her, and in that instant she felt a hunger for him as well. He reached out and caressed her bloody cheek, and she shivered as her power moved against his. He was dead. That Lucy couldn’t forget. But whatever animated him called out to her as well, and yet there was more.
She wanted Vin, whether he was a vampire of not, there was something very basic in him that she liked... no... she loved something in him. Loved it deeply and passionately, and wanted nothing more than to wrap that something around her like a blanket. Like the arms of a lover.
But I already have a lover. It’s Gabriel, it’s always been Gabriel, ever since the first time I saw him in that restaurant. It was him. She’d chosen him, right then and there.
She stepped back from Vin, her hand touching the place where his hand had been. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?” he asked, his eyes fastened to hers.
“I’m in love with Gabriel.”
Vin’s eyes chilled, and he looked away.
“I can’t deny that I feel something for you... because you know I do. But I’m choosing... I’ve chosen Gabriel. I’m sorry, but I won’t sully that with whatever this is trying to be. I just won’t.”
A red tear trickled from his right blue eye. He reached up and swiped it from his cheek and chuckled mirthlessly. “And here I thought you were going to make me work harder for your affections. I never imagined you would reject them completely.”
Lucy smiled, feeling shitty for being so viciously blunt. But...
“That’s me... all or nothing girl.”
Just then Gabriel and Micah leapt over the wall of the necropolis. Gabriel had a lean, long katana sword in his grasp, Micah a shotgun in one hand and a sword hanging on his back. They landed silently, their bodies rigid with anger, eyes scanning the graveyard, and then taking in the sight of the slaughtered sisters.
They looked in unison to Vin.
Vin shook his head. “I just got here myself. This was all Lucy’s doing. She truly can take care of herself.”
Gabriel moved with superhuman speed to Lucy, enveloping her in his arms as he pressed his face into her hair. “I was so scared they’d kill you... is... is this all their blood?”
Lucy shrugged, then wrapped her arms around Gabriel’s neck. “Some of it’s mine too.”
“Yours?” Lucy recognized a freak out when she saw one winding up in someone.
She quickly changed the subject. “Don’t I deserve a kiss from my future husband?”
Just as Gabriel shook his head and leaned in to kiss her, Vin disappeared. She didn’t see him leave, but she did feel it when he was suddenly absent. She silently told him she was sorry, again.
Micah was morbidly looking at the slaughtered pair of werewolves, and then he took the sword out of her hand—she hadn’t realized she was still holding it. It just felt too good in her hand to part with.
“This thing’s just iron!” Micah looked up and locked eyes with Gabriel. “You’d have to have wielded it with amazing strength. Werewolf strength... or vampire strength.”
“Can I have it back?” Lucy said, irritation in her voice, longing in her heart. She didn’t like being separated from the sword even for a minute.
“Where’d you get it?”
“Oh...” She suddenly felt a little embarrassed. “I ripped it out of that headstone there, so maybe we should have it restored... the headstone, I mean.”
The brothers silently gathered around the ancient looking tombstone—a Celtic cross.
“Tobias Luther Enoch,” Gabriel read. “He was our great-grandfather, and a great warrior of our people.”
Micah said: “They say he was so powerful he didn’t need silver blades to kill his enemy. I think he’d be happy to see the sword being used again.”
“We’ll get it sharpened and shined, restored in the morning.” Gabriel said, reaching out to Micah for the sword. But Lucy intercepted him, and took hold of the sword instead.
“I think I’ll keep this with me... just in case I need to save myself again... ”
Gabriel gave her a bewildered look.
Micah snorted. “I sleep with my Sig Sauer under my pillow too.”
Gabriel looked to Lucy, an argument forming on his lips. She popped up on her toes and kissed him. “I promise, it will stay under the bed.” Just close enough to grab if someone attacks me in my sleep.
Chapter 12
Lucy had plopped down in Gabriel’s Jag without thinking. She suddenly froze and looked over at Gabriel with deepest apologies in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I should have found something to put over the seat.”
The seats were Italian leather, and even though they were probably scotch guarded, they were a buttery tan color that begged to be caressed. Blood would most certainly stain the hell out of them.
Gabriel chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I have blood soaked fiancée coverage through Enoch Industries.”
She glared at him.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Really, it’s okay. I have a detailing wizard that can get any stains out of the upholstery of this car.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Wizard… as in he’s highly skilled, or he’s an actual wizard?”
“The first one. I don’t think I could afford to have a wizard on retainer.”
Lucy scoffed. “Really?”
Gabriel got this look on his face, as if he were remembering something very unpleasant. “Yeah... well, they don’t usually take money as payment. So yeah, only the truly desperate go to wizards.”
Check, no wizards... ever.
Lucy suddenly wondered if Abbey would ever start charging for her services. She’d already proven to Lucy that she was one hell of a mystical bodyguard.
Lucy took a deep breath and decided she couldn’t put it off any longer. She had to call her Gram.
“Can I use your phone?”
Gabriel had it out and handed to her in less than a heartbeat.
She tapped in her grandmother’s home phone, and she picked up on the first ring… not a good sign.
“Lucybean... where have you been? We’re all worried sick about you!”
Lucy told her that she was fine—not an outright lie. Besides being covered in her own blood and the blood of her enemies, she didn’t have a mark on her. The warrior werewolf spirits had been quite thorough when they’d healed her. So a little omission wouldn’t hurt.
“But everyone’s been calling looking for you. And you missed your bridal party,” Gram said. “Are you sure something isn’t wrong?”
“I’m positive. I’m fine. No big deal. But I’m staying the night at Elaina’s. A sleep over kind of thing.”
“Elaina?” There a note of scorn in Gram’s voice.
“Yeah, Elaina. She’s Gabriel’s cousin.”
“And you’re sleeping over at her place tonight?”
“Yes... ”
Okay, this is weird...
Oh crap, I just stepped in it, didn’t I?
“Elaina’s standing right there with you, isn’t she?”
Gram sighed, “And you’re with Gabriel, aren’t you?”
“It’s a long story.” Which, it was… a hell of a long story.
“Let me talk with the wolf!”
Lucy’s back straightened. She didn’t like the tone of her grandmother’s voice, not one bit.
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’?”
“I’m a grown woman, and no, you’re not browbeating my fiancé just because I’m spending the night at his place.” Oh crap, I really did it this time. There was no way in hell that her gram wouldn’t go ballistic over that little confessional nugget.
“Lucinda Marie Hart!”
“Gram... Gram?” Lucy picked up a receipt from the car console and crumbled it up just inches from her cell phone. “I’m losing my reception...” and then she hit end call.
And then she turned her phone off... well, Gabriel’s phone. Her phone was probably on the side of the road somewhere between home and wherever in the hell it was the Double Mint twins had taken her.
“You’re really asking for it,” Gabriel said as he powered his Jaguar through the twisty streets of San Bernardino.
“Do you want to be the one she freaks out on if she got a look at me right now?”
Gabriel gave Lucy the once over. “You’re right. Good call.”
“Anyways, I’ve never even seen your apartment.”
“Oh, so this is just a convenient way of inviting yourself over.”
Lucy glared at him. “What part of being kidnapped and tortured and nearly killed is convenient?”
Gabriel glanced at her and grinned. “Hey, girls can be devious.”
“Just drive wolf-boy.”
Gabriel smiled. “You’re so cute when you’re surly.”
Lucy was about to say something scathing about his parentage when the Jaguar abruptly stopped and she looked out at a large, upscale apartment building.
She looked up. It was a tall sucker.
“Let me guess... penthouse?”
“Nah, that’s Dante’s place. I’m the fifth floor.”
Lucy looked at him with surprise. “The whole fifth floor?”
Gabriel sighed and rolled his eyes. “Maybe we should take you home.”
Lucy pulled open her door and swung her bare feet out onto the sidewalk. No way was she going home. She wanted to see her man’s digs. She just couldn’t believe that she hadn’t seen it before... what had she been thinking?
He could have all sorts of secrets hidden in an apartment... and in an entire floor of an apartment building he could have rooms of secrets hidden. Hell, he could have rooms of secret girlfriends hidden away too.
Lucy pushed that thought right out of her head. Thinking like that would surely drive her crazy, in no time.
But he had you on the side the entire time he was with her...
Yeah, but that had been the homicidal bitch’s idea... and we hadn’t started out to fall in love. It was just something that happened while we were pretending to be in love...
She was about ten feet away from the front doors to the apartment building when she saw the sudden look of shock on the doorman’s face. He looked like he was looking at a ghost.
And since she was covered in enough blood to merit a blood drive at the Red Cross, she couldn’t really blame the poor guy.
He wasn’t exactly young... late thirties. But he had a soft look to his face, as if he hadn’t had too hard of a life. Maybe this was his part time job while he went to college?
His nametag read Jerry, and he looked just about to reach for the phone, no doubt to call the police, or for an ambulance. But when he saw Gabriel behind her, coming up from the rear, his face got that relieved look to it... and he suddenly looked even younger.
“Paintball game,” Gabriel said as they approached Jerry, and he pulled the door open for them. “It’s a hell of a brutal game.”
“Shall I call for some fresh clothes for the lady?” he asked helpfully.
Lucy was just about to say yes, when Gabriel said, “That’s okay. I already have some.”
Lucy just stared at him as he led the way to the elevators. She glared at him as they waited for the doors to open silently, and then for them to close with a whisper.
“I’m not wearing anybody’s castoffs!” Especially if they’re hers!
“I doubt my cousin would have stocked any used clothing here for you... you know how she is. She won’t even buy vintage couture.”
“Oh...” Lucy felt a flush of embarrassment.
They exited the elevator, and he led her down the hall to a deep mahogany door. The turn of a key and the door opened. Lights turned on by themselves. Motion sensors.
The place was just gorgeous. Floor to ceiling windows, deep, dark carpeting, and high ceilings. A luxury apartment if she’d ever seen one.
Lucy felt bone tired, and wanted nothing more than to curl up somewhere and die... but she was covered in blood, dirt, and probably some other icky fluids. She needed a long hot shower and a change of clothes. Gabriel was suddenly not beside her. Lucy looked around the apartment, and then he was just suddenly coming out of a door further back in the apartment.
Werewolf speed. A royal pain in the rear end to get used to.
“I put some sweats and what Elaina considers a t-shirt in the bath. There are plenty of towels, and she even stocked toiletries she said you used.”
Lucy wrinkled her nose. “How would she know what I use?”
Gabriel rubbed his index finger over the end of his nose.
Oh... she could smell it on me. Makes me wonder what else the weres could smell on a person, and what that all told them.
Lucy shook her head and pushed those thoughts out of her head. Priorities. Shower, fresh clothes, and then sleep. She desperately needed some sleep.
She followed Gabriel further into the enormous apartment—and dang if it didn’t take up the entire fifth floor. He directed her into the bathroom and pointed to a kitchen sized trashcan.
“For your clothes,” Gabriel said. “I’ll burn them in the incinerator in the basement myself. Just to make sure none of your blood falls into enemy hands.”
Lucy shivered just thinking what that dress tailoring witch could have done with her blood. But they’d have to figure out what blood was hers and what had been that of the Double Mint twins.
But still, good idea.
Gabriel turned on the water to let it warm up, and then departed, closing the door behind h
im. Lucy slowly peeled out of her clothes. They were mostly still wet, but in some places the blood had dried. Which made them stick to her body in odd places.
She stepped into the hot spray of the shower and let the water wash over her, drowning out everything as it cascaded and ran over her tired, tender body. Her injuries might have healed perfectly, but she still felt sore, and her flesh was ultra sensitive to the touch.
After who knows how long she started to wash herself, lathering up with her favorite body wash—it was still strange that Elaina had known exactly what she used, with just a casual sniff.
Werewolves...
She lathered and rinsed her hair, and then repeated and repeated and repeated. Thank god Elaina had even guessed her conditioner correctly, because Lucy’s hair would be stripped of all its natural oils by the time she washed all the blood and gore out of it.
Finally she turned off the hot water. Wow, but Gabriel must have an industrial sized water heater. She toweled off, rubbed her hair dry, even though she found a hair dryer—still in its packaging—under the sink. She pulled on the sweats and the t-shirt, and didn’t feel a bit self conscious about not wearing a bra or panties.
She was going to be sleeping... for a week. She so didn’t care what she looked like.
Gabriel was waiting for her outside the bathroom door. He had also changed into a pair of jersey shorts and a t-shirt.
“Don’t we make the cute pair?”
Gabriel smiled and led her across the hall, through a pair of double doors, and into another enormous room. This one was without a doubt the biggest bedroom she had ever seen. She approved of it immediately. She’d always been one for scope in her bedrooms.
She crawled up onto the bed. The covers were already pulled back, and she slithered under the silken duvet and the Egyptian cotton sheets. They were freshly laundered, but still smelled of Gabriel. She lay on the pillow and looked up at her fiancé. He was standing on the other side of the bed, his eyes intent on her, but his body rigid. He looked so adorably insecure.
“I didn’t come here to sleep alone,” she said with a smile. “And lose the shirt.”
Gabriel obediently pulled his shirt up over his head and dropped it to the ground before slipping into bed with her. Lucy was so tired, she just crawled up on to him, burying her face in his strong, broad chest and inhaling deeply. Just touching him, smelling him, made something inside her relax. She had no name for it, no words, but it was immediate. And as she felt Gabriel’s arms wrap around her she fell instantly asleep.