A shadow passed by the window, catching both of their attention. Then the doorbell rang. It took a moment for her to register what it actually was. Levi glanced at the hall then back to her. Instead of going to answer it, he grabbed hold of her panties.
The doorbell rang again. Fists pounded against the wood. The bell rang and rang and rang.
Chapter Twelve
"What in all of the gods! Hold the fuck on!" Levi yelled. He looked down at the very beautiful female lying before him, such a sight. He throbbed and ached for her in ways he couldn't explain. Whoever was at the door had better have a fucking good reason to interrupt so dramatically. "Sorry, we can pick this back up later. Put some clothes on and meet me in the living room." Levi slipped his jeans back on and then padded barefoot out to the front door. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself. For all he knew it could be an emergency. When he thought he had settled his body enough and he began to soften, even though his balls still ached, he pulled on the doorknob.
The crystals in his pockets heated, burning a hole, or what felt like a hole, into his leg as he swung the door open along with a tingling sensation. Meredith stood before him with a purple hue radiating from her. And even though he could see her, he could actually feel the void of nothing.
"Meredith?"
The woman pushed her way through the door, grabbing Levi's hands. In his shock that she could be the killer, he allowed the disruption until she began to speak.
"Don't do this with her. She's not your mate." Her voice was sugar-coated and pleading. Her eyes held a sheen of tears to them.
Levi broke from her, not wanting to touch someone who could do what she’d done to the animals, why did she...?
"Meredith...you... you were the one sabotaging my business...disrupting my life? What have I done to you?"
Looking taken aback, Meredith’s face contorted into anger. "Sabotage? I have done nothing to harm you. I've been protecting you. Protecting us. I know we’re meant to be together. I've known for months, but until yesterday I wasn't sure if you felt the same, but when you kissed me." Her face lit up, and Levi’s stomach churned with disgust. "I knew you could love me too. Everything has been for you." She reached for him again, but Levi stepped back out of her reach.
"No. No, what you have done cost me some business. You’ve killed innocent animals, desecrated their bodies—"
"I did no such thing. I gave them to you. To help support you. Did you not eat the meat I left?"
Confused Levi said, "I did eat the meat, but—"
"And I showed my love for you with the heart. I gave the heart to you, a sign of what I felt, every part of the animal a gift. Something I knew you would not let go to waste, but also as an offering of myself. You accepted."
"Levi?" Sadie's voice came from behind him.
"Why were you with her?" Meredith’s anger returned, and she lunged for Sadie, grabbing onto her horns before Levi reacted. "You, horn girl, are the answer to everything!" Meredith’s voice rose. She suddenly had a steel knife in her right hand and pressed to Sadie’s neck. Levi thought his heart would leap from his chest, even though Sadie didn't look scared. The tingling he felt earlier meant this was the primal blade. He should have fucking known.
"Wait just a minute." Levi put his hands out in a calming gesture. "Meredith, look at me." Once she glanced up at him he continued, "How is Sadie the answer? And to what exactly? I mean, okay, I can see why you left the animal, even the heart." Despite his dislike of what she'd done, somewhere in her maddened brain she thought she cared for him, helped him. He could help her if she would let him. But he'd never forgive her if she harmed Sadie. Levi pounded his angry thoughts down, keeping them at bay, wanting to come off as on her side, at least until she let go of Sadie.
"I was tasked with watching you. You're Khimairan, she is too. She will be the gift I give to appease the other Bellers."
Oh fuck. She was one of those. "Wait, you've been sent to watch me? Is that how you kept your true self from me?"
"No, you helped me with that and keeping us both cloaked. I've been using your potions and mixing them with the blood magic to create a cloak. I was supposed to turn you over to my higher ups in the Bellers, Levi." Her eyes softened as she stared at him. "But I couldn't. I'm in love with you and I can't just hand you over to those heathens." Her eyes hardened as she looked back at Sadie. "But giving them her they will get off our backs. They'll stop looking and..." She glanced back at Levi. "We can go away together. Get as far away as possible."
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sadie's spat venom with her words and her fists clenched tightly.
"Shut it, you little home wrecker. I saw him first, and you can't have him. His mark is invoked and that was my doing when I kissed him."
There were many things running through Levi’s mind. Meredith was completely off her rocker. He could try to talk her down, but she had a knife to his mate. He'd have to find a way to make her believe he wanted to be with her, just long enough to get Sadie away from the danger, and then he could handle Meredith better. His beast snorted and paced inside him, wanting to break free, to charge forward, rescue his female, and trample the one who wished her harm. Levi took several breaths to calm the internal beast, he knew it would get him nowhere. It was likely she'd cut Sadie’s throat before his beast could do anything to Meredith. Before Sadie could say anything, Levi said, "She's right you know, Sadie." He straightened his shoulders and kept his eyes on Meredith. He couldn't look at Sadie or his true feelings would betray him. Meredith would be able to see if he gave any hint he worried for Sadie’s safety.
"What the hell is going on? That is not—"
Meredith pushed the tip of the blade against Sadie’s throat, and she stopped talking. A trickle of blood slid down the knife. "You don't get to talk. Levi, we can tie her up, I'll deliver her, and we can go. I didn’t want to do it this way, but I can't get out from under the Bellers without giving them someone and I won't give them you. If they find me before I hand over a Khimairan, then they'll likely skin me alive. They already have that other female... that’s when I started protecting you even more. I knew once they set out to get her, you would be next, and my love, I couldn’t allow it. I just can't bear to see you strung up like a stuck pig for them to use." A tear slid down her cheek, and Levi wanted to believe she was trying to protect him, to be better than the Bellers had a reputation for, but then she also had a blade to his mate’s neck.
"The other female?”
“Yeah, Lacey or Tracey is her name...I only heard it briefly in passing.”
“Meredith, you talented, smart woman. Thank you." Levi tried to sound sincere. He even kind of wanted to be. The blood magic made humans go mad, and clearly it had gotten to Meredith. Adding his potions probably made things worse, then her obvious obsession with him contributed to be a catalyst for just this situation. There was no way he could have known it would be like this.
As Levi stepped toward Meredith with a hand out toward her, hoping the woman would accept and he could get the primal blade from her, Meredith buckled. Sadie grunted as she slammed an elbow into Meredith’s ribcage, the blade fell from her hand and disappeared the moment it hit the floor. Levi glanced back up. Sadie pulled her fist back and slammed a very solid punch to Meredith’s face. They both fell backwards; Meredith hit her head against the wall with an almost sickening thud.
Sadie knocked her out.
"Okay you were joking, right? Because otherwise we are going to have serious words." Sadie was up on her feet and heading straight for Levi, pissed as all hell and damnit it if it wasn't one of the sexiest things Levi had ever seen.
"Sadie, now, take a breath. Think it over for a minute. Do you really think I'd choose her when my mark clearly came to life for you? You felt it. I played along." Levi scanned over Sadie’s shoulder as she stood toe-to-toe with him. Her brows knitted together, and a blazing heat came from her eyes, filled with so much hurt and anger he thought it might burn him. "I swear I was placa
ting her."
Meredith moaned.
"Oh, hell no. By the gods woman, you will stay down." Sadie stomped over to her and punched her again.
"I think that's enough. Why don't we secure her and then we can go from there, then you don't have to keep hitting her. Which, I might add, was a bit sexy that you saved yourself like that." Levi winked.
Sadie grabbed Meredith and pulled her up. "You are not off the hook because you gave me a compliment. I do get it, but I'm still pissed about it."
"If you don't want to bond, then what's the problem?" Levi goaded her, and he did it on purpose, liking this fiery little female helping him carry Meredith to the kitchen. Sadie had one arm and Levi had the other. They drug her over the carpet and tile and then set her in a chair.
Sadie didn't answer his questions, instead she said, "Where's your rope? Maybe we can get some information out of her, and you might want to call the lead Khimairan. She knows about the portal guardian being taken, which means we have a use for her."
How did she do that? Just switch like that from this soft-spoken female to someone in charge right in the middle of chaos. "You're beautiful," Levi said. “Our clan leader can handle the rest, with Meredith’s information and the rescue team he should have put together, they will find our guardian, I’m sure of it.”
"Rope." She raised a brow at him.
Levi pulled open the cabinet under the sink and removed the chords he had there. He never knew when he'd need to grab something to catch a calf or evidently tie up a Beller who had a thing for him. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were jealous."
"Well, if you had any sense, you would stop trying to get to me and start focusing on the problem we have sitting in this damn chair. You got some herb or potion to keep her knocked out until we can figure things out? Or you want me to keep punching her? I gotta be honest, it's killing my hand."
Chapter Thirteen
Sadie glared at the female who thought she could take Levi away. Meredith's head lolled as she began to wake up. Levi had given her some odd lavender-smelling potion that kept her asleep the last twenty minutes while they decided what to do. The end result—they needed answers, and Levi needed to come up with a mixture to help Meredith forget.
"Why haven't you come up with some kind of potion before now to make a Bellers forget?" Sadie didn't take her eyes off Meredith as she addressed Levi when he walked back into the kitchen from his lab.
"It's not like we tie up Bellers and interrogate them often. Actually, we spend a lot of our time trying to avoid them and keep the peace. This is a unique opportunity." Levi had a syringe in his hand filled with a purple liquid which reminded Sadie of the oil he'd given her.
Sadie looked up at him. "Something with Belladonna in it?"
Levi shrugged, set the syringe on the island, and leaned against the counter. Meredith moaned as she came to, pulling on the ropes around her wrists. Her eyes seemed to clear as she realized what was happening. Meredith glanced at the syringe and then up to Levi. Pain etched into her features, the kind of pain that comes from being betrayed. If Levi couldn't make her forget...then Sadie knew revenge would be at the front of Meredith’s mind.
"You going to torture me, Levi? After everything we've shared?" Her words came out sweet as honey and dripping with anger.
"I'm not going to torture you. I'm going to help you."
Meredith scoffed. "Help me with what?"
"Get away from them."
Meredith looked bewildered, glancing between Sadie and Levi. "What makes you think I actually want away from them? Now that I don't have you, it doesn’t matter, does it?"
Levi kneeled down so he was at Meredith’s level. "If you didn't want away, then you wouldn't have bothered asking me to run away with you. I'm sure some part of you likes it...possibly the power and such, but you don't seem like a bad person to me, Meredith. Killing those animals, removing their hearts...not the way I would have shown my love to someone—but you didn't actually hurt anyone and you had good intentions."
Sadie blinked in shock at how Levi handled the situation. Sadie wanted to be angry, to get her own kind of revenge because the woman was a menace, at least in her opinion, but the truth was, Levi was right. She hadn't done much harm. Sadie felt the scab on her neck. She could have killed Sadie, but she'd hadn’t, or maybe she hesitated, hesitated long enough Sadie got away. Or she could have been distracted with Levi—either way Meredith hadn't done anything she couldn’t be forgiven for. Forgiven didn't mean Sadie had to like her though.
"Khimairan blood...it makes us go crazy you know?" Meredith broke down. "Some of them, they use the blood with the magic to make themselves into odd animal shifters. They want to be like you, and yet that isn’t what I signed up for." Tears streamed down her face. "I wanted to help. I was told that by watching Khimairans and reporting back, I was helping them understand you better...I didn't realize until the last couple of years how far they would go...and once they took that human guardian..." She sniffled. "I'm not like them. You have to believe me. I know I can be a bitch, but I've never used tainted blood to gain anything like that. I did use some to help protect us, but I swear I never meant any harm. I don't know what’s wrong with me." Meredith cried in earnest.
Sadie almost felt sorry for her. "You could have walked away."
Meredith turned her head to face Sadie. "It doesn't work that way. Once you’re in...you don't get out." She looked at Levi. "If you let me go, I promise I will do everything I can to keep you safe."
"Levi, you can't be going for this?" Sadie lifted her hands in the air. Keep them safe? What would the female do? Lie to the Bellers? How would she keep them a secret? "Letting her go would be a huge mistake."
Levi glanced at Sadie. "You don’t have to like what I'm about to say, but it's not our call to make. I have the potion here, but in truth, this is a decision for Dante and other leaders. I've already called Jace, he should be here any minute."
"What are you going to do with me? Levi? Who's Jace?" Meredith panicked. She struggled against her restraints.
"Calm down. He won't hurt you. As I said, we can help you."
"Then just let me go!"
The doorbell rang.
The room fell silent as they each turned to look at the door. Levi opened it and let Jace saunter in. "That the Beller?"
"My name is Meredith."
Jace slowly walked toward the chair. There was a sheen of sweat along his brow. Had he run here or something? Sadie glanced over Jace’s shoulder to Levi. Levi gave her a grin and headed back to the counter where he fiddled with the syringe of purple liquid.
"Meredith." Jace said her name so low Sadie thought he might actually be angry. He moved around to face her, tipping the chair back so he didn’t go down to Meredith’s level. He stood over her. "We are going on a road trip. Levi will give you a little something for the ride."
Meredith struggled to no avail. Levi pulled the lavender potion out of his pocket. Meredith glared from one to the other and set her jaw as if she dared one of them to force her to take the potion. Sadie wasn’t sure if she felt sorry for her or thought she was getting what was coming to her. Jace grabbed Meredith’s nose, effectively plugging in. When her mouth popped open, Levi put a few drops along the female's tongue. Jace let the chair down, and within seconds Meredith’s eyes drooped.
"What are you going to do with her?" Sadie stood and rung out her hands. "You're not really going to torture her, are you?"
Jace turned to Sadie. "Not unless I have to."
"I think she might be willing." Sadie rushed the words out, hoping to spare the female some pain if she could, though she wasn't sure why. "She wants out of the Bellers."
"Don't worry, Sadie. Dante and I will figure out what to do with her. Levi said she had commented about the missing guardian. The initial plan is to get that information first any way we can...within reason of course...we aren’t savages, despite what the Bellers think. After that, it will likely be up to her how the r
est of thing go on her end. But we will get the guardian info from her first."
Meredith had passed out while they spoke. Jace untied her and picked her up in his arms. She whimpered but seemed otherwise content. Sadie knew they wouldn't kill her or anything, but she did hope Meredith cooperated.
"I hope we get what we need from her. Before you go, here's the injection I whipped up.” Levi handed it to Jace and continued, “I don't actually know what it will do, so if you decide to try it on her or anyone else—understand this is a trial, a test, and it might not work or could have potentially harmful reactions. I'll text a full list of ingredients to you tomorrow." Jace nodded and headed to the front area. Levi followed, opening the door for him. When the front door closed, Levi turned heated eyes to Sadie. "Now where did we leave off?"
Sadie’s stomach fluttered as Levi headed in her direction. A giggle slipped out of her mouth as she ran around the island. "Now wait just a minute...I don't just turn on like a light switch you know. I had a knife to my neck." Sadie pointed to herself as Levi eyed her from the other side of the island. But even as she said the words, that smoldering look in his eyes told her he would have her. Despite the rocky start between them, she admired Levi. He was quick to fix issues. He never once put her down about her shifting or her horns. Matter of fact, all he'd done since she’d met him was help her, and he didn't once make her feel like less of a person. She could see herself being bonded to him, exploring one another and the love they could share they were to give this a real chance.
"And said knife mark is no longer there. Next excuse." He put his hands on the counter. There was a deep gleam to his eyes, almost predatory, and Sadie liked the effect he had on her with just a look. She did want him and she really wanted to finish what they had started. A pulse spread between her legs.
"I might half shift in the middle of sex." Sadie was only a little worried about that. She'd never shifted during sex before, and earlier she had no hints of shifting even though she had been pretty worked up.
Unraveled: A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Capricorn (Dark Khimairans Book 2) Page 7