“I’m beginning to think all your theorizing was just a bunch of bullshit,” Damien growled. “Didn’t look to me like you were too worried about a collision between matter and anti-matter when you were wallowing all over Laurie.”
Lucien glared at him. “And obviously neither were you or you wouldn’t have been fucking slobbering all over her the other night. But you’ve got a point. Seeing as how you volunteered to test the theory and proved it wrong, I realized that was one thing, at least, that we didn’t have to worry about.”
“So you figure on moving in on Laurie? Is that how it is?”
“I’m figuring that whatever I do is none of your fucking business,” Lucien growled.
“I’m making it my business,” Damien snarled back at him.
“You two might as well go on in there and ask her which of you she wants to fuck seeing as how you’re talking loud enough she can probably hear every word.”
Lucien and Damien both turned to glare at Basil before they returned their attention to one another. After eyeing each other speculatively for several moments, they both relaxed their stance.
“Later, brother. As much as I hate agreeing with Basil, this isn’t the time or the place to settle this,” Lucien said pointedly and far more mildly than before.
Damien studied him a moment longer and finally nodded. “When this is over I’m going to kick your ass, though.”
“You can try.”
“Maybe I’ll kick both your asses?” Basil said as the two men climbed the steps to the porch. “We’re here to take care of her, not let her get killed while we fight over who’s going to screw her.”
Damien snorted. “You couldn’t kick my ass, much less mine and Lucien’s.”
“Speaking of which,” Lucien said tightly, “you need to go relieve Kane, Basil. I’ll take first watch here. Damien you can catch some Zs. I’ll wake you when it’s your time.”
Damien shrugged. “I’m not that tired. You look beat. Why don’t you rest and I’ll take first watch?”
Lucien looked like he wanted to argue, but he dismissed it. “Fine. Just stay frosty. Until we’re sure they didn’t manage to track us here we can’t afford to relax.”
Not that there was a hell of a lot of chance of that after the confrontation with Damien, Lucien thought irritably as he went inside and headed for the second bedroom.
He didn’t know what pissed him off more—the fact that Damien had challenged him over Laurie, or that he’d challenged him at all.
The problem with being pack leader when your brother was part of the pack was that the brother always wanted to challenge for dominance. He supposed that might be because Damien was his identical twin and there wouldn’t have been a problem otherwise, but somehow he doubted it. He was pretty sure there would still have been sibling rivalry on top of pack rivalry even if Damien had simply been ‘A’ brother, not an identical twin.
Then again, he didn’t recall that they’d clashed much until they’d passed through the vortex.
Before their beasts seemed to take over.
They’d never been much for talk—not about personal stuff—so they hadn’t discussed their feelings on the subject of finding themselves changed/changing into monsters. He didn’t know whether Damien—well any of them—were having trouble dealing with it or not, but he was having a hard enough time trying to ignore his own anxieties and had no desire to invite them to unload on him. He didn’t want to think about it. He sure as hell didn’t want to discuss it.
Maybe it wasn’t that the beasts were taking over, though? Maybe it was just anxiety that that was what was happening because he didn’t understand what was happening/had happened?
He felt like he was less human—in his mind—than he’d been before the incident. He had found himself thinking in terms of ‘pack’ more and more often and less of ‘team’ or squad. It went beyond that, although he wasn’t as sure of other things. Mostly it was a matter of looking at things differently than he had in the past or at least feeling as if his perspective had changed.
That part could all be in his mind, though. Maybe he was no different at all and it just seemed that way?
He was a hybrid. There was no memory of anything else because he’d been genetically engineered—all of them had—from inception. And yet he had never questioned his humanity. He’d always thought of himself as a human with abilities endowed by the hybridization—human with extra abilities and senses—not non-human.
Of course everyone else attached to the program had considered them non-human monsters and they hadn’t even had the ability to shape shift in their own world.
And he had absolutely no doubt that Laurie would consider them monsters if and when she found out what they were.
But right up until he’d discovered that his interest in Laurie went way beyond the hope that she was some kind of link to the old world that could help them find their way back it had only mattered what he thought and felt about himself. Now that he felt like he’d lost something crucial, he found that it mattered that he was a hybrid because he wanted Laurie in a way he couldn’t ever remember wanting another woman.
He couldn’t have her. It didn’t matter how badly he wanted her—and none of the others could—although he could see they wanted to get their hands on her as badly as he did. She wouldn’t go for it, not once she knew what they were.
It flickered through his mind to wonder if it was actually possible that he could be with Laurie and still prevent her from knowing—a sure sign of just how desperate he was, he thought with disgust. He shouldn’t want her at all knowing how she’d feel about it when/if she found out.
But he did. He always had.
The chemical attraction had been there from the first moment he’d seen her counterpart in his own universe. That hadn’t gotten lost in translation. If anything it was stronger than before. He just hadn’t realized until he’d gotten close to Laurie that she was everything he wanted, had always wanted.
That fact was going to make for a truly miserable gig, he thought derisively as he plopped down on the bed and stretched out, the worst to date and they’d already had some pretty bad ones.
Of course it could’ve been worse. He could be on Xeno-12 right now getting his ass shot off or frozen off with Lindsey riding him like she was a slavemaster.
* * * *
Despite the fact that Laurie generally had trouble sleeping in strange places, she slept like a log once she passed into the great beyond. She woke feeling strangely euphoric—strange because it took her a while to figure out why she felt that way.
Well, she wasn’t altogether sure even after she’d thought it over for a while in a lazy sort of way with her eyes closed. She’d slept better than she had in a very long time, she realized, felt more rested and relaxed than she had in so long she gave up on the effort to remember the last time.
It was before, though. She realized that fairly quickly—before the day she’d watched the murder play out not more than a couple of yards from where she’d parked her car. She’d broken half her fingernails off trying to get her car unlocked and jump in and lock the door behind her before the murderer could get to her. She’d stared him right in the face while she dialed nine-one-one.
She could still remember the terror as if it was fresh, as if it had only happened the day before instead of nearly a year ago.
She couldn’t remember it without thinking about the series of fortunate events that had resulted in her being alive now instead of buried and all but forgotten.
She hadn’t actually heard the life and death struggle going on only a few yards away. Some sixth sense had twanged and drew her gaze to the two men just as the victim toppled his killer in a last ditch effort to save himself. If not for that ‘sense’ that something was wrong, she didn’t know if she would’ve had time to save herself.
If she hadn’t had her keys in her hand she didn’t know if she could’ve gotten the door open fast enough to get in and lock it behind her.
>
If she’d frozen she would be dead even though she had had her keys.
If her phone had been dead—or lost in her pocketbook—she wouldn’t have managed to make the call.
If there hadn’t been a patrol car cruising down the block, he wouldn’t have gotten there before the bastard broke her car window and got to her.
She’d tried really hard not to think about all the things that might have happened to produce a completely different outcome, but they were part of the recurring nightmares.
She’d slept through the night, though, and didn’t remember having a single bad dream.
She thought she knew why when she inhaled deeply.
She was sleeping in Lucien’s bed. She could detect his scent on the sheets and pillow and it made her feel safe, almost as if she was wrapped in his embrace.
She didn’t know how she knew it was Lucien’s scent, but she was convinced of it.
She thought anyone else would think she was a nut case. She hadn’t even known the guys an entire week. She’d been very close to both Lucien and Damien, though, and she thought the encounters had made a profound impression on her because she was sure she could recall Lucien’s scent and Damien’s and tell the difference between the two.
Was that just her imagination, though? Would twins have a different scent? Almost certainly if they were only fraternal twins since that was only a situation where two separate entities were created at the same time, the only difference between them and a typical birth being that they developed together and were born together. Identical twins were one person in duplicate. Genetically, they weren’t just siblings like fraternal twins. They were exactly the same person—in duplicate.
So unless they were just brothers who looked an awful lot alike, it had to be all in her mind, right?
Maybe.
She discovered that it didn’t make that much difference to her. She didn’t doubt it would to them, but she felt as safe and comfortable whichever one it was—Lucien or Damien.
The smell of food cooking brought her out of the bed finally. All she wanted was her coffee. She couldn’t handle food first thing in the morning, but she definitely wanted the coffee.
She actually preferred having her coffee before she dressed, but she wasn’t drowsy enough to forget she was sharing a cabin with four strange men.
She snickered at that thought and corrected it.
Men who were strangers—not strange. At least they didn’t seem weird to her. They seemed pretty normal.
Well, except for what they did for a living.
But then again there were plenty of men that worked in security or were policemen or soldiers or mercenaries. They just happened to have the sort of job that was a little more risky and maybe had a little higher cool factor than the typical gun toting job.
Kane, looking like he hadn’t slept much, was in the kitchen frying bacon when she arrived. It felt oddly intimate being in the kitchen with him so early in the morning with both of them still not terribly alert.
“Want something?” Kane asked by way of greeting, his voice having that ‘rusty’ morning sound to it.
“Coffee,” Laurie responded a little faintly.
“There’s a pot brewing. It’ll be ready in a few.”
Pleasure wafted through Laurie. “Oh. That’s great! Do you have any cream or dry creamer?”
“Some of everything. I drink mine black, but Lucien likes cream in his and Basil and Damien want the dried stuff.”
Lovely! Because she actually liked both in hers! She’d brought what she needed, but she didn’t feel like wrestling her suitcases at the moment.
The coffee pot started filling just as Kane finished cooking his eggs. Laurie searched the cabinets until she found a cup and then the drawers for a spoon. It was a small kitchen, tiny actually. She supposed she should have just got out of the way and let Kane finish instead of crowding him, but it didn’t really seem awkward dancing around him to gather her fixings and he didn’t seem to find it annoying.
“Sure you don’t want anything?” he asked as he settled at the table with his plate.
She smiled at him. “Just coffee,” she said, spooning sugar and creamer into her cup before she added the coffee and then moving to the fridge for a few dollops of milk. “You said you liked your coffee black?”
“Yeah. I’ll get it.”
“I can get it. I’m right here.”
She got another cup for him and settled across from him.
“How did you sleep?”
She smiled wryly. “Better than you, I think.” She blushed faintly when she remembered she’d stolen poor Lucien’s bed. “Must be the mountain air.”
Kane rubbed the dark sandy whiskers along his jaw ruefully, but there was humor in his eyes when he met her gaze. “That bad, huh?”
Laurie shrugged, her smile widening. “I didn’t say it was bad. The rugged look suits you.” He looked good enough to eat, in fact, way too sexy to handle so early in the day!
He uttered a surprised bark of laughter at that.
Lucien, who came in on the heels of it, gave both of them a sour look. “Ah. I see our little Laurie is a morning person,” he murmured.
Despite the fact that the comment seemed just a tad sarcastic, the ‘our’ Laurie sent an odd little tingle of warmth through her. She chuckled. “Not really. But I slept well for the first time in a very long time and I feel better this morning than I have in a while. Plus I had coffee waiting,” she added, smiling at Kane. “I usually have to put it on myself.”
Lucien snorted. “Well Kane didn’t put it on. I put it on and set the timer when I came in from watch at four.” He moved to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee.
Laurie sat up straighter in her chair and stared at his broad back. “Four! My god! What were you doing up at four?”
He sent her a startled look and then glanced at Kane questioningly.
Kane shrugged.
“This is a security detail, sweetheart,” Lucien said with a touch of amusement. “We rotate the watch.”
“You mean you actually stand outside in the dark with guns watching for somebody that might decide to sneak up? Aren’t there like … electronic gadgets to do that? I thought that was why we came way out in the middle of nowhere—so we didn’t have to worry about anybody sneaking up.”
Chapter Eight
There was no getting around the fact that Laurie hadn’t had a clue that she would be expected to go into protective custody. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she might need it! She didn’t realize just how unprepared she was for it until that moment, though, and it actually became even clearer and worse as the day wore on.
There wasn’t one movie or book that she’d seen or read that had prepared her for what she had to deal with. She hadn’t realized how much the entertainment industry romanticized this sort of thing!
It was absolutely miserable! Far worse than any vacation she’d ever had in her life—with all of the down sides and none of the pluses.
It transpired that she didn’t have anything with her that she wanted or needed. She might just as well have stuffed her suitcases with garbage because aside from a few changes of clothing and a few of the cosmetics she’d brought that she almost never used, there was nothing—none of the day to day ‘must haves’.
The cabin was in the back of beyond nowhere.
She supposed. She didn’t actually get much chance to check it out, no more than a glimpse of woods that looked totally primeval. Because as soon as she walked to the window to check out the view she was snatched away from it and lectured about making a target of herself.
She stared at Lucien wide eyed, her heart hammering like a pneumatic driver. “You think they’re out there?” she gasped breathlessly.
Lucien shook his head. “I don’t want to find out when they blow a hole in you. Just don’t stand at the window. In a few days, when we’re positive nobody managed to track us out of the city … we’ll see.”
; “But …,” Laurie paused, trying to jump her brain into gear for quick calculations. “Didn’t the DA say they were about to start selecting the jury? I mean, I’m only going to be here a few days, right?”
Lucien frowned, but he didn’t answer.
She glanced around the small cabin. Damien was no where around but both Basil and Kane had come in. “Right?”
They glanced at Lucien, shrugged, and then disappeared into the bedroom at the back of the cabin.
“They’re going to bed?” Laurie asked blankly.
“We rotate, two on watch, two off. Shift change every four hours. That way nobody’s attention is off from fatigue.”
Laurie looked around and finally moved to the couch and sat down. “I thought this would just sort of be like … hiding out for a few days.”
Lucien studied her for a long moment and finally transferred his attention to the view beyond the cabin.
“I’m going to lose my job … my home … everything! How can that be right? I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“It’ll work out,” Lucien said, not very convincingly. “You’ll be alive. As long as you’re breathing you can start over.”
Far from calming her, the comment created an eruption of anger and fear she’d been trying to quell. “Well I don’t want to fucking start over!” she yelled angrily. “I already worked damned hard to get where I am—Not that that’s such a great place, but there’s a lot worse situations out there! And I don’t want to be in one of them.”
“Don’t be stupid, Laurie! Dead is permanent! As soon as they deal with the guy, you can pick up your life again.”
Laurie picked up a pillow off the couch and threw it at him. It smacked him on the side of the head.
“Hey!”
“Don’t call me stupid!” she growled. “Don’t act like this is nothing! We’re talking about my whole life crumbling around me, damn it! If it was your life you’d be upset, too!”
“You still have time left on your vacation,” Lucien pointed out. “You aren’t going to lose your job.”
“And what about when it runs out? I thought I was going to come up here and testify and go home again, but now I’m told I can’t until the trial and god only knows when they’re even going to start the trial because nobody down here seems to know! Just how long do you think they’re going to hold my job if I don’t get back when I’m supposed to? I mean, if they didn’t need me they wouldn’t have hired me to start with! I’m only expendable if they can replace me!
Mark of the Wolf; Hell's Breed Page 7